To clarify: the title is excerpted from Act 1 of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. The full quote goes: "Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile; So ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes." It's a warning against spending too much of your life in scholarly pursuits.
Day By Day
Monday, June 26, 2006
Private SNAFU
In her quest to humiliate the New York Times Michelle Malkin has been digging up some really neat materials from WWII. Today's offering is from Project Archive's Wayback Machine [here] and features "Private SNAFU" a series of training films produced by the Army Signal Corps, created by Theodore Geisel [Dr. Seuss] and Phil Eastman, voice by Mel Blanc, music by Carl Stalling. [here]
Needless to say, that's some heavyweight talent. Also involved in the project were Tex Avery, Frank Capra [who dreamed it up], Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin, Fritz Freleng, and Bob Clampett. Most of the talent came from Warners, but MGM was also involved.
There were cost overruns on the project and Warner executive, Leon Schlesinger was accused of padding the bills.
The title alone of this project, "Private SNAFU", should serve as a reminder to those who continue to insist on the peculiar incompetence of the current administration, that SNAFU, TARFU, and FUBAR* are all military slang for the expected state of affairs and indications that military operations are always messy. The Iraq adventure has been less messy than most.
SNAFU = Situation Normal All F***ed Up.
TARFU = Things Are Really F***ed Up.
FUBAR = F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition.
The free version at the Wayback Machine is the clean one. The uncensored versions are available on DVD here.
Christopher Dow's review of the series in Bright Lights Film Journal, is available online here.
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