Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2009 September 27

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September 27

The Poem from the Fantastic Voyage

Pausing long enough to take the camera off Raquel Welch, there was an exchange between the late Arthur Kennedy, the late Doanld Pleasance and the late Stephen Boyd ( of Ben Hur fame ) in 20th Century Fox' " Fantastic Voyage " ( 1966 ), which goes as follows :

Dr. Duval: Yet all the suns that light the corridors of the universe shine dim before the blazing of a single thought...

Grant: - proclaiming in incandescent glory the myriad mind of Man...

Dr. Michaels: Very poetic, gentlemen. Let me know when we pass the soul.

Dr. Duval: The soul? The finite mind cannot comprehend infinity - and the soul, which comes from God, is infinite.

Dr. Michaels: Yes, well, our time isn't.

Who wrote this poem, was it someone like Robert Frost, or did the scriptwriters as Fox do a very artistic turn with their words ? I like the quote, it reminds me of the " Incredible Shrinking Man ", but does anyone know where it comes from ? The RussianChristopherlilly (talk) 06:13, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

A Google search seems to show that it was written for the film. Who then was a gentleman? (talk) 19:05, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, that was the best I could find too. Although it does seem odd. It reads very well for something dreamed up by a scriptwriter, and the way that one character starts the phrase and another finishes it seems to suggest that it's a recognised poem.Popcorn II (talk) 14:35, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Not all scriptwriters are in Ed Wood's category. →Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots 06:56, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

xkcd

To what does this comic (link will be outdated by Monday) refer? I don't see many products with "<miscelleneous-object>-free!" on them personally. Is it common in America? Vimescarrot (talk) 12:32, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

Here's the permanent link. Mitch Ames (talk) 12:37, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

And yes, it is common in the US. There are sugar free, lactose free, BST free, etc. etc. If there is some sort of perceived benefit to having something not be in your food, you can find a food somewhere that claims not to have it. And for what it's worth, I thought it was pretty funny when I read it. XKCD is one of my favorites. Dismas|^(talk) 12:57, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

They've even gone so far as to rename products to fit that method. Milk without any fat in it used to be "skim milk", now it's "fat free !" (with the exclamation mark sometimes actually on the product). StuRat (talk) 15:42, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

It's not entirely unknown in the UK either, though I've mostly seen fatty products labelled low in sugar (and vice versa), rather than substances you wouldn't expect food to have at all. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 19:50, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

On candy in the US it is not uncommon for them to say "A Fat Free Product!" on things that have never contained saturated fat (but are still not good for you). --Mr.98 (talk) 20:52, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

"CFC-free" was quite common in Australia for a while. (I don't know if it still is - my wife does most of the shopping.) Mitch Ames (talk) 01:22, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

In the US, numerous fatty foods have starburst labels proclaiming, "Trans-fat free!" or "0g trans-fats!" Tempshill (talk) 05:40, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Thanks to all. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:29, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

UK brands also use such constructions as "95% fat free" (which, of course, means they're 5% fat) and "20% less salt", which is generally meaningless. Gwinva (talk) 02:45, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

Pokémon: The First Movie

As you may or may not know, the English release of the first Pokémon movie was one of their worst screw-ups ever due to the sheer amount of bowdlerization and needless edits. Where can I find the Japanese version of the first movie with English subtitles so that I don't have to put up with 4Kids's atrocity? --71.153.41.187 (talk) 18:03, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

Sale of Bjork's swan dress

There were various news reports in 2005 that Bjork's famous swan dress, which she wore to the 2001 Oscars, was to be auctioned on eBay for charity. However, I have not seen any reports confirming its sale. Did it in fact sell and, if so, what was the sale price? John M Baker (talk) 21:26, 27 September 2009 (UTC)

The closest I could find was that it reached more than £6,000 on eBay.--The lorax (talk) 21:56, 27 September 2009 (UTC)