<html><div>Sorry I missed this round--lots of family stuff--birthdays, end of school parties, Boy Scout Camp, Granddaughter's HS graduation and prom, etc. BTW, she got in to Wheaton with a big scholarship! Rest of us, now vaccinated, are recovering from pandemic isolation and getting out a bit more. LINda Hope to go dancing with my husband tonite. <br><br>---------- Original Message ----------<br>From: Jean-Joseph Cote <jjcotedsl@verizon.net><br>To: fictionary@swarpa.net<br>Subject: Re: [Fictionary] THE BIRDS AND THE BEES results<br>Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2021 07:57:49 -0400<br><br>By the way, if anybody really does want to watch the real movie, it's on <br>YouTube!<br>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnmyMRHU0Ig<br><br>On 7/8/2021 12:08 PM, Jim Moskowitz wrote:<br>> Hello, fellow fictioneers!<br>><br>> Thank you all for indulging me in my variety round, and thank you Beth Bruch for making a return appearance after something like eight years! Thanks too to Jed, who submitted votes for the first time in a long while.<br>><br>> And now for the results: Apparently we collectively need more practice in inventing plausible Hollywood plots. The actual synopsis of The Birds and the Bees, (starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, and David Niven; directed by Norman Taurog; and written by Sidney Sheldon based on an idea by Preston Sturges) got twice as many votes as any other entry!<br>> (On the other hand, it didn’t win the Most Want To See prize, which goes to Ziv and the talking pet parrot.)<br>><br>> Among the fake entries… we have a TIE, between Hutch and Eric at 4 points each, so I’ll ask them to confer privately and decide who gets to run the next round.<br>><br>><br>><br>> HUTCH: Two friends from very different circumstances decide to trade places at a high-society party. Each meets the girl their parents expected the other to meet. Confusion and comedy follow.<br>> Eric - I think this definition and my own are both more like madcap<br>> comedies of the '30, but I don't know much about movies. Maybe<br>> they made those in the '50s as well?<br>> David - 2 points.<br>> Pierre - 2 points.<br>> Jed - If that last sentence had been “Hilarity ensues†I might have voted<br>> for it. :) (https://www.kith.org/words/2000/09/10/rrreviews/) I think I’ll give<br>> this my “most want to watch†vote, though a lot would depend on the tone<br>> of the movie. I’m thinking it might have the general flavor of _The Reluctant<br>> Debutante_, which could be very enjoyable.<br>> <br>><br>> DAVID RANDALL: A lost Japanese fisherman and his two children are rescued by a menagerie of animals that have become super-intelligent in the wake of an atomic explosion on a tropical island.<br>> Ziv - I think this wins my "want to watch" award, but only if it were made<br>> more recently -- I can't imagine 1950's America having Japanese<br>> protagonists at all, much less ones portrayed with any kind of sensitivity…<br>> Eric - I know we're supposed to only get one vote for which movie we’d<br>> like to see, but it's hard. Two watching points.<br>> Jean-Joseph - 1 point, if for no other reason than that that I'm amused thinking<br>> about the Mr. Ed-like special effects that would have been in play back<br>> in 1956.<br>><br>><br>> ERIC COHEN: When an out-of-luck reporter signs on as caretaker at the Bird Nature Sanctuary, he hasn't bargained on all the Birds -- formidable great-aunts Lucy and Helena, rowdy schoolgirl Rhoda, or the lovely Diane.<br>> Ziv - 2 points -- sounds like 1950 gender politics to me…<br>> Pierre - 1 point.<br>> Jed - I like this one quite a bit (especially the idea that Bird is a family name),<br>> but where are the bees? 1 point.<br>><br>><br>> JEAN-JOSEPH COTE: Two rival all-female motorcycle gangs battle over turf in Southern California, culminating in a choreographed rumble.<br>> Ziv - Then, in the sequel, the victorious Bees meet up with the Sharks<br>> to find out who is US Street Rumble Champion.<br>> Eric - I know we're supposed to only get one vote for which movie we’d<br>> like to see, but it's hard. One watching point.<br>> Ranjit - 1 point, and tied for most want to watch.<br>> Jed - Nice. 2 points.<br>><br>><br>> BETH BRUCH: A bee keeping widower and ornithologist widow clash while trying to keep their teenaged children from dating. As tempers flare, so does the chemistry between the parents; they resist until the teens step in to teach their elders a lesson about the birds and the bees.<br>> Ziv - 1 point.<br>> Pierre - I'd like to watch this one.<br>> Jed - I like this, but I feel like it might be more 1970s than 1950s. (Huh, but<br>> I now see that _The Parent Trap_ (which this description roundaboutly<br>> made me think of) was made in 1961, at least ten years before I thought<br>> it was, so maybe 1956 isn’t too early for this sort of thing.)<br>><br>><br>> THE IMDB: On an ocean voyage, a card shark and her father cheat a naive man out of his money. Things take a twist when the girl falls in love with the man she's just fleeced.<br>> Eric - 2 points.<br>> David - The Lady Eve [Jim adds: I confess, when I chose this movie I had<br>> no idea it was a remake of the more famous film David mentions!]<br>> Ranjit - 2 points, and tied for most want to watch.<br>> Jean-Joseph - 2 points for the shipboard romance.<br>> Beth - 2 points.<br>><br>><br>> PIERRE ABBAT: Biologists studying pollinators in the Amazon rainforest are abducted by the Ye'kwana tribe. Anthropologists and missionaries in neighboring tribes cooperate to try to free them.<br>> Pierre adds: I was going to say the Yanomamö tribe at first, but Yanomamö<br>> (which I think was considered a single language at the time) is spoken in<br>> only a small area and not related to anything else, whereas Ye'kwana is<br>> Cariban, and Cariban languages are spoken in a wide area, so there would<br>> be more outsiders who could talk with them.<br>><br>><br>> ZIV STERN: A newly orphaned boy must learn to navigate first love with the help of a new authority figure: his father's talking pet parrot.<br>> Eric - I hope this isn't true, but it might be. 1 point.<br>> David - 1 point, and most want to see.<br>> Jean-Joseph - I guess this last one is the movie I'd most like to see.<br>> Beth - 1 point, and most want to see.<br>><br>><br>> General comments:<br>><br>> Eric - This was great fun.<br>><br>> Pierre - This is tough! Maybe because I don't watch movies.<br>><br>> Jean-Joseph - I think this worked out quite well, where all of the entries seem well-written and plausible to me. Kudos to all!<br>><br>> Linda - This ballot makes no sense. I have been enduring a heat wave plus family stuff--not so bad, as family stuff was fun and now it is cooler. sorry not to help out this time.<br>><br>> David - The vote for The Birds and the Bees<br>> Was slow, for we lay at our ease<br>> In summer siestas,<br>> Or played in fiestas,<br>> Far away from our Macs and PCs.<br>><br>><br>><br>> -Jim<br>><br>><br><br>-- <br>J-J Cote<br>jjcote@alum.mit.edu</p></html>
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