In our silly lil game, we sometimes see things pop in that we have no clue as to their Origin. They seem familiar, but we just can’t pinpoint from where. So that is why we decided to make a fun lil reminder out of it. To let you know just Where Did THAT Come From?
Remember a little post I did about Burns’ Casino? Well… you may remember me mentioning “Burns goes all Howard Hughes watching people gamble.” I wasn’t kidding and now we have a TSTO skin to prove it. I know a lot of you have probably seen this episode by now since seven items have already came from the episode (I already linked one above, here’s the other WDTCF from it). With respect to that, I’ll keep this one short and just share some photos.
Burns doesn’t sleep for days and the only thing that can stop him is microscopic germs. Burnsy quickly descend into mania. “They’re all covered with filthy germs, aren’t they Smithers?”
Burns goes in seclusion a la Howard Hughes. Long fingernails, tissue box shoes, jars of urine, beard… check and quadruple check although I don’t think Hughes shared the footwear. During this mania, Burns designs the Spruce Moose which would “carry 200 passengers from New York’s Idlewild Airport to the Belgian Congo in seventeen minutes.”
So much fun. In the end, Homer’s antics trying to get Marge away from her gambling addiction convince Burns to clean up and return to what he’s good at… crushing souls at the Nuclear Plant. To the Spruce Moose!
When I saw the Spruce Moose was going to be available to be crafted, I wondered what size it’d be. Burns’ version in the show was never bigger than the model he flies around and that’s half of the hilarity. I’m happy it appears Burns built some version of it although this one is smaller than his original plan.
Funny that some may know Burns once built a monstrosity of a wooden plane… the Plywood Pelican which can be seen in “Midnight Rx” (S16:E6). “Wow. A wooden plane. It’s about time trees were good for something… instead of just standing there like jerks.”
Larger than a football field and weighing more than the state of New Hampshire, its creator, one C. Montgomery Burns once flew it at an altitude of six feet for a distance of four and a half feet. Then he discovered rain made it catch fire and he was promptly fired by the Fuhrer.
The Plywood Pelican seems like a one-hit wonder in the episode but appears later when Homer uses it to smuggle perscription drugs into Springfield. Mr. Burns allows Homer and Grampa to use it so it can fulfill “its original purpose, to subvert the laws of the United States.” It doesn’t catch fire but does lose a wing to lightning. No worries though, somehow Homer is able to crash land it with only one wing.
So there you go friends. A coot and a plane. To truly understand the hilariousness of this new skin, you really have to read up on the eccentric OCD of Howard Hughes and then rewatch Burns in this episode. A short-ish way to do so would be to watch The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio but there’s lots of great books and online sources too. As a kid, I got the chance to see the H-4 Hercules aka the Spruce Goose (the real plane which is parodied) in person and boy was it impressive. Hughes actually built a plane almost entirely of birch wood with a 320 foot wingspan (that’s larger than a football field!) Anyhoo… What do you think of these items? Want to share any cool facts about Howard Hughes? I’m thrilled this was all freemium. Sound off in the comments and happy crapa-crapa-crapping and tapping.
TTFN… Wookiee out!