[continued from previous message]   
      
   Don't forget THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING   
   AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES.  [-gmg]   
      
   An anonymous poster asks:   
      
   Is this a title "clearly designed as a gimmick":   
      
   THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED   
   BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF   
   THE MARQUIS DE SADE (usually shortened to MARAT/SADE)?  [-anon]   
      
   Evelyn answers:   
      
   Yes.   
      
   Scott Dorsey also responds to the original post:   
      
   Also IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD should get some mention and it   
   is hard to beat THE SAGA OF THE VIKING WOMEN AND THEIR VOYAGE TO   
   THE WATERS OF THE GREAT SEA SERPENT.  Of course, theatre marquees   
   were much larger back then than they are today.   
      
   Vilmos Zsigimond and Laszlo Kovacs used to love talking about   
   TISCWSLABMUZ which I gather was a lot of fun for them to shoot as   
   young kids in a new country.  [-sd]   
      
   Regarding the possibility of the events in the film, Peter Trei   
   writes:   
      
   Evelyn writes, "Of course, the solution in the movie wouldn't   
   work.  Soil has a 20-degree angle of repose, hence a 20-foot mound   
   would have a radius of about 55 feet, so a volume of about 63,000   
   cubic feet.  At 75 pounds per cubic foot (the average for soil),   
   that's 2400 *tons*.  There were not enough people to move that   
   much soil in the time given."  [-ecl]   
      
   It's easy to say that, but I wonder....   
      
    From Wikipedia:   
      
   "The film is based on a story heard by Christopher Monger from his   
   grandfather about the real village of Taff's Well, in the old   
   county of Glamorgan, and its neighbouring Garth Hill.  Due to 20th   
   century urbanisation of the area, it was filmed in the more rural   
   Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant and Llansilin in Powys."   
      
   So, I looked up Garth Hill on Google Earth. It's at   
   51 deg 32'35.72" N  3 deg 17'39.26" W.   
      
   Here's the thing.  There's a mound on top of the hill, about 120   
   feet in diameter.  It's apparently called 'The Garth'.   
      
   The surrounding land on this gentle hill is around 990 feet high.   
   However, 'the Garth' tops out at 999 feet.   
      
   I can't find anything about this mound specifically.   
   Theoretically, it could be a geologic feature, or built by   
   aspirational peasants for a map.   
      
   Silbury Hill has an angle of about 25 degrees, and has stood for   
   over 4000 years, but its more engineered than a mere heap of dirt.   
   Its volume approaches 9 million cubic feet.  'The Garth' would be   
   a mere 37,000 cf.   
      
   However, the Wikipedia article for Garth Hill notes the presence   
   of a number of Bronze Age round barrows on the top of the hill.   
   It seems very likely that 'The Garth' is one of these, and the top   
   being nearly exactly 1000 feet a coincidence that engendered a   
   nice local legend.  [-pt]   
      
   John Kerr-Mudd responds:   
      
   I blame erosion.  Or the Englishman who came down a Hill after   
   going up a Mountain.   
      
   "However, the Wikipedia article for Garth Hill notes the presence   
   of a number of Bronze Age round barrows on the top of the hill.   
   It seems very likely that 'The Garth' is one of these, and the top   
   being nearly exactly 1000 feet a coincidence that engendered a   
   nice local legend."  [-pt]   
      
   More likely.  And the locals of the time would have had a longer   
   time to do it.   
      
   P.S. Taff's Wells was (not now, alas) more recently not quite   
   famous for having a general hardware store that had a tinbath   
   outside; inspiring Ronnie Barker to create "Open All Hours".   
   [-jkm]   
      
   Tim Merrigan adds:   
      
   I watched that film, and seem to recall an epilogue that said that   
   while the villagers had achieved their goal of increasing the   
   height of the hill to (barely) qualify as a mountain, in the   
   intervening years till the making of the film, the mound had   
   settled to below the requisite height.  [-tm]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: Color-Blind Casting (letters of comment by Gary McGath, Jay   
   Morris, Keith F. Lynch, and Peter Trei)   
      
   In response to Evelyn's comments on color-blind casting in the   
   04/11/25 issue of the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:   
      
   It's a weird thing.  Racial miscasting is regarded as something   
   terrible, yet it's done all the time without getting complaints.   
      
   When there are complaints, they often get it wrong.  People   
   complain when Othello is played by a white of European extraction,   
   but a black actor of sub-Saharan ancestry would be equally   
   inaccurate.  People from that area were rare in Shakespeare's   
   England.  A "Moor," which is what Othello is called, would have   
   been North African or Middle Eastern.   
      
   Historically, well-qualified actors matching a part's ethnicity   
   were often passed up in favor of white actors in movies.  A big   
   reason for this was the Hays Code, which banned interracial   
   romance or kissing.  Once a white was chosen for a role, any part   
   romantically involved with it also had to be white.  [-gmg]   
      
   Jay Morris writes:   
      
   I would have hoped that it would be at least as historically   
   accurate as Hamilton.  [-jm]   
      
   Keith F. Lynch responds to Evelyn:   
      
   I agree.  I wonder how many viewers of BRIDGERTON have been left   
   with the mistaken impression that George III's wife Charlotte was   
   black.   
      
   It would hardly be any more inaccurate to cast a black actor as   
   George Washington and white actors as his slaves.  [-kfl]   
      
   Peter responds:   
      
   Back in the early 80s, I saw a production of Ted Tally's play   
   "Terra Nova", about the Scott Antarctic  expedition.  The lead   
   (Scott) was played by an African-American actor.  This was a   
   little jarring at first, but rapidly became irrelevant.   
      
   Unless the race of the character is part of the story, I don't see   
   that it matters.  Oddly, in BRIDGERTON (I only watched the first   
   season), race is mentioned at least once.  [-pt]   
      
   Gary McGath responds:   
      
   Soprano Kathleen Battle has been noteworthy as Pamina in THE MAGIC   
   FLUTE.  Because of a racial subplot, Pamina is supposed to be   
   white, but no one really cares.  In opera, physical suitability   
   for the role doesn't matter.  I've seen a singer who was well over   
   6 feet tall play a half-dwarf in Wagner.  Heavily built women   
   singing the leading part in LA TRAVIATA, a woman who's dying of   
   tuberculosis, have become a standing joke.  I recently heard of a   
   production of FIDELIO where Leonore, who is a woman disguised as a   
   man until the final scene, was played by a woman who was eight   
   months pregnant.  [-gmg]   
      
   Tim Merrigan adds:   
      
   Famously the admonition "it ain't over till the fat lady sings"   
   references Brunhilde's final song in the "Ring" Saga.   In "reality"   
   Brunhilde, a Valkyrie and warrior maiden, would not have been fat,   
   her combined jobs having kept her in shape.  [-tm]   
      
   Evelyn adds:   
      
   Back in the 1980s, we went to a high school production of   
   something which had twin sisters in the story.  Okay, you know   
   what's coming--one was played by a black student and one by a   
   white student.  It was a bit jarring--after all, forty years ago,   
   color-blind casting was not a thing (except for the awful   
   instances of blackface, yellowface, etc.).  [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   Okay, it's been another hectic week, and while I did read MAROONED   
   by Martin Caidin for our discussion group, I haven't had a chance   
   to write anything up, so you get another chapter's-worth of   
   commentary on MOBY-DICK.   
      
   CHAPTER 3: The Spouter-Inn   
      
   THE COMPACT EDITION OF THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY thinks   
   "squitchy" means "squishy"--having to do with water. However, "to   
   squitch" means "to jerk or twitch", and the only use of the word   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)