Ball of Fire Page #9

- Well, I can try.

720

00:
38:50,561 -- 00:38:52,825

You know, I had this happen one night

in the middle of my act.

721

00:
38:52,897 -- 00:38:55,730

I couldn't get a thing off,

was I embarrassed.

722

00:
38:55,800 -- 00:38:57,199

How's chances for a cup of coffee?

723

00:
38:57,268 -- 00:39:00,260

- No breakfast after 9:00.

- You see, it's a rule.

724

00:
39:00,338 -- 00:39:03,432

Just like my Aunt Beulah that

brought me up, that's why I left home.

725

00:
39:03,507 -- 00:39:04,496

- There.

- Oh, swell.

726

00:
39:04,575 -- 00:39:06,338

Now where is this little clambake

of Professor Potts'?

727

00:
39:06,410 -- 00:39:09,811

- In the dining room, just across the hall.

- In the dining room. See you later, kids.

728

00:
39:14,685 -- 00:39:17,848

Don't tell me the jive session

has beat off without baby.

729

00:
39:17,922 -- 00:39:20,390

Shut the door please, Miss O'Shea.

730

00:
39:23,894 -- 00:39:24,918

You're late.

731

00:
39:24,995 -- 00:39:27,190

I won't waste time with introductions.

These are our collaborators.

732

00:
39:27,264 -- 00:39:28,788

- Hi, kids.

- Hi.

733

00:
39:28,866 -- 00:39:31,391

As I was saying, I've worked out

a series of cross-references

734

00:
39:31,469 -- 00:39:33,562

which I believe will be the best approach

to our subject.

735

00:
39:33,637 -- 00:39:35,070

Going like gangbusters, isn't he?

736

00:
39:35,139 -- 00:39:36,800

Sit down, please.

737

00:
39:40,144 -- 00:39:43,341

I don't think

you'll find our venture dull, Miss O'Shea.

738

00:
39:43,414 -- 00:39:47,248

The scientific conquest of

an important subject is never dull.

739

00:
39:48,018 -- 00:39:50,680

"Slang," as the poet

Carl Sandburg has said,

740

00:
39:50,755 -- 00:39:52,416

"is language which takes off its coat,

741

00:
39:52,490 -- 00:39:54,651

"spits on its hands and goes to work."

742

00:
39:54,725 -- 00:39:57,626

Let us... Let us, too,

then get down to work.

743

00:
40:04,301 -- 00:40:07,202

Well, we've accomplished a lot

in the last three days,

744

00:
40:07,271 -- 00:40:09,796

and I'm very grateful to all of you.

745

00:
40:09,874 -- 00:40:12,365

There's another word

I'd like to take up now.

746

00:
40:12,443 -- 00:40:14,502

It's recurred several times

in our discussions,

747

00:
40:14,578 -- 00:40:16,569

and its meaning still eludes me.

748

00:
40:16,647 -- 00:40:18,239

I think it was Miss O'Shea

who used it yesterday

749

00:
40:18,315 -- 00:40:20,943

in reference to the cuffs that I wear.

750

00:
40:21,018 -- 00:40:23,748

- The word is "corny."

- Yeah, wouldn't you say they were corny?

751

00:
40:23,821 -- 00:40:27,188

- Because of the cornstarch in them?

- Because it's 1941.

752

00:
40:27,925 -- 00:40:31,884

- Then corny means old-fashioned.

- Kind of hick, loose-tooth.

753

00:
40:31,962 -- 00:40:33,486

Mortimer Snerd.

754

00:
40:34,298 -- 00:40:35,856

Oh, gee.

755

00:
40:36,467 -- 00:40:38,128

There's other kinds of corn, too.

756

00:
40:38,202 -- 00:40:39,863

When you give your girl

your fraternity pin,

757

00:
40:39,937 -- 00:40:42,235

well, if she says, "I'll keep it forever,"

758

00:
40:42,306 -- 00:40:44,570

- that's corny, too.

- Yeah, or take a joke.

759

00:
40:44,642 -- 00:40:46,439

"That's no lady, that's my wife."

760

00:
40:46,510 -- 00:40:48,842

Making your baby's shoes into ashtrays.

761

00:
40:48,913 -- 00:40:50,278

- That's corn.

- Right off the cob.

762

00:
40:50,347 -- 00:40:52,645

Well, let's stick to corn.

763

00:
40:52,716 -- 00:40:54,581

Is it synonymous with baloney?

764

00:
40:54,652 -- 00:40:57,746

No, it's anything

that gets them in the sticks.

765

00:
40:57,822 -- 00:41:00,416

"Long time, no see," that's Indian corn.

766

00:
41:00,491 -- 00:41:02,049

Yeah, when a guy comes to see a girl

and says,

767

00:
41:02,126 -- 00:41:03,957

"Let's turn off the lights,

it hurts my eyes."

768

00:
41:04,028 -- 00:41:05,723

Brother, that's corn.

769

00:
41:05,796 -- 00:41:08,856

The implication is

he's trying to pull some hoytoytoy.

770

00:
41:08,933 -- 00:41:12,892

- You're catching on, Professor.

- Countrified, old-fashioned, sentimental.

771

00:
41:25,916 -- 00:41:27,406

Business kind of peaked, Jack?

772

00:
41:27,485 -- 00:41:30,386

Yeah, it takes up a lot of time

being on the faculty.

773

00:
41:30,454 -- 00:41:32,422

- I'll buy the heap.

- There's no call for you to do that.

774

00:
41:32,490 -- 00:41:34,321

Why not?

I want to line my bureau drawers.

775

00:
41:34,391 -- 00:41:35,517

Gee, thanks.

776

00:
41:36,293 -- 00:41:39,524

- Back in a second, Professor.

- Oh, yes, all right.

777

00:
41:53,511 -- 00:41:55,672

- Miss O'Shea.

- Just a minute.

778

00:
41:59,950 -- 00:42:01,076

- Miss O'Shea.

- Yeah?

779

00:
42:01,151 -- 00:42:03,016

We saw you pass the library arch,

780

00:
42:03,087 -- 00:42:05,385

and we kind of got a little problem

on our hands.

781

00:
42:05,456 -- 00:42:06,889

- Would you help us?

- Why, I'd love to.

782

00:
42:06,957 -- 00:42:07,981

Oh, good.

783

00:
42:08,792 -- 00:42:10,760

You're kind of spruced up today,

aren't you, Professor?

784

00:
42:10,828 -- 00:42:12,455

- The spats?

- Yeah.

785

00:
42:12,530 -- 00:42:16,159

I ran across them in my bottom drawer.

Why let the moths eat them?

786

00:
42:16,233 -- 00:42:18,292

Attaboy. What's your problem, sweetie?

787

00:
42:18,369 -- 00:42:20,234

- Well, look.

- Let me start again.

788

00:
42:20,437 -- 00:42:22,462

ODDLY:
But, Professor,

I'm completely exhausted.

789

00:
42:22,540 -- 00:42:25,737

But we've got to get it right.

Now, start with the right foot.

790

00:
42:25,809 -- 00:42:27,470

- The left foot.

- The right foot.

791

00:
42:27,545 -- 00:42:28,603

Gentlemen, it's the left foot.

792

00:
42:28,679 -- 00:42:30,738

- Which foot, please?

- The right foot.

793

00:
42:30,814 -- 00:42:32,907

All right, but you're wrong.

794

00:
42:33,417 -- 00:42:35,612

One, two, three, four.

795

00:
42:35,686 -- 00:42:38,086

One, two, three.

796

00:
42:38,155 -- 00:42:40,623

But I can't "humph" from here.

797

00:
42:41,825 -- 00:42:44,988

We've been working on it

ever since luncheon.

798

00:
42:45,062 -- 00:42:46,188

Holy smoke.

799

00:
42:46,263 -- 00:42:49,858

- Start again with the left foot, come on.

- The left foot.

800

00:
42:52,069 -- 00:42:54,503

One, two, three.

801

00:
42:55,639 -- 00:42:57,334

Well, it's the right motion.

802

00:
42:57,408 -- 00:43:00,775

- But it doesn't feel right.

- It doesn't look right.

803

00:
43:01,312 -- 00:43:03,109

Possibly it isn't right.

804

00:
43:03,180 -- 00:43:05,512

There was two "humphs." Humph, humph.

805

00:
43:05,583 -- 00:43:08,017

Well, that would make it right.

Humph, humph.

806

00:
43:08,852 -- 00:43:10,114

You're wrong, my dear Gurkakoff.

807

00:
43:10,187 -- 00:43:12,815

Mathematics can never be wrong.

Look here, I'll show you.

808

00:
43:12,890 -- 00:43:15,120

- Stay there, Professor Oddly.

- Show him.

809

00:
43:16,860 -- 00:43:18,293

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