h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chapter 7

"I booked you on the V.I.P Flight, as per your uncle's instructions," Amy said as she escorted me onto the most sumptuous plane I had ever seen. I scanned the interior to see what celebrities I would be sharing the flight with, but saw no one.

"Owen, the V.I.P. on this fight is *you*!" she said with a giggle. "There's a staff of ten, and they *all* are here to pamper you and prepare you for the adventures that lie ahead."

The pampering sounded better than the other part, but I was momentarily willing to see things through rose-colored glasses. Amy lost no time in introducing me to the people who would bend every effort to make me feel important over the next fourteen hours.

"This is the pilot, Mal Fung Shen," she said as I shook hands with a very courteous and dignified Asian man. "And, by a strange coincidence, the co-pilot is his cousin from Mexico, Juan Eng Shin," who turned out to be younger but equally dignified. The part of me that was wont to panic thought that the names of these two pilots were disturbingly like Malfunction and One engine, but I overrode Mr. Panic. With such a posh plane and such great efforts being made to keep it in the air, what could go wrong? Plenty, as it turned out, but I would not find that out until it was way too late for me to bail out.

What followed over the next few hours was the stuff of which dreams were made. I settled into the roomiest armchair I had ever seen. Once we were airborne, the two flight attendants brought caviar and champagne. Then the masseur led me to a salon where he got all the soreness out of my muscles. Back I came to my seat, where a five-star chef brought me dishes I had heard about but never tasted -- beef Chateaubriand, pheasant under glass, and a selection of the finest cheeses washed down with wines of the finest vintages. Dessert was flaming crepes suzettes served by the pastry chef himself.

While my dinner was digesting, a movie screen was set up in the wall in front of me, and my favorite movie was shown: the Robin Williams/Shelley Duval version of "Popeye."

"I'm the only person on the planet who likes this film," I said to Amy. How on Earth did you know I would enjoy it?"

"Your uncle had his ways of knowing these things," Amy said mysteriously. I later found out that Uncle Floyd's drones had been spying on me for years, but at the time I was too swayed by good food and entertainment to worry.

*chuckles*

I'm loving all these sly clues...

[Amy P]

Meanwhile, the narrator is steadfastly failing to pick up on clues that are obvious to everyone else .

I picked "Popeye" because I like the movie myself, but I must admit that it has a lot to say about finding one's true self and searching long and hard for what has been lost.

Think we had those same two pilots in Mexico! Loving this

Your hero is really having a wonderful time on the aeroplane. I have only watched the Popeye cartoons and my favourite character is Olive Oyl.

Shelley Duval was *born* to play Olive Oyl. Jules Pfeiffer wrote the screenplay, and Ray Walston ["My favorite Martian," "South Pacific," "Fast times at Ridgemont High"] plays Poopdeck Pappy, who is Popeye's father. The original songs are clever. My favorite is "He's Large," in which Olive Oyl tries to think of Brutus's good points and keeps coming back to the fact that he's large . There's also "Everything is food, food, food" in which Wimpy [played by Paul Dooley] interjects "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." Roberta Maxwell, a talented character actress who later appeared as jack twist's mother in "Brokeback Mountain," plays Nan Oyl, who is Olive's mother. Linda Hunt, the diminutive actress who would later earn an Oscar for "Year of Living Dangerously," plays the mother of an immense ruffian whom Popeye has to fight with.

I still think it's one of the greatest cult movies of all time. So what if Robin Williams [as Popeye] only comes to life with the "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man" song that has been around since the Thirties? Since Williams has recently died, I think it would be good to give this movie another chance.

My personal favourite is 'Poopdeck Pappy' Singing 'It ain't Easy Being Me'
That might only be because I can identify myself with it so well.

Yes, it is a film that you either love or despise

F S