the written word will lead us all astray

white elephant gifts

i had an office christmas party a month ago. a white-elephant party. i had the perfect idea for a gift: the mysterious island. i bought it at a clearance rack at big lots a while ago because it was only 2 dollars and featured special effects by none other than ray harryhausen. ray harrryhausen is the special effects wizard behind such great films as the seventh voyage of sinbad and jason and the argonauts. he also made clash of the titans. and he’s had a huge impact on special effects and stop motion animation. some say he was the biggest influence for the classic the equinox: a journey into the supernatural (but not the equinox, the movie the studio butchered).

a great white elephant gift, right? except that the movie mysteriously disappeared. i couldn’t find it anywhere. i searched and searched the entire house with no success. so i went with plan b: a vhs copy of weekend with a 5 dollar bill hidden in the vhs case.

(actually, i passed on that idea. i was feeling sentimental about my vhs copy of weekend. plus, i was worried that one of my coworkers might actually watch weekend. i mean, it’s no videodrome, but definitely a traumatic experience. instead i gave some old atari games — ms pacman and the smurfs.)

then yesterday, the mysterious island mysteriously reappeared.  it was just sitting on a stack of dvds in the living room.  my only guess is that the ghost who has recently been haunting my house borrowed it for a month.  i hope the ghost — who i’ve named claire because i think it’s the ghost of an old landlord — loved the movie.  i still haven’t watched it.  (other recent ghost encounters include the garage door mysteriously opening and closing, cups mysteriously moving when you go to pour orange juice and mysterious strange noises at night.)

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