My previous "blog"trospective, which covered the 20th century, wore me out. But last night I was watching an old episode of
THE SIMPSONS, a flashback to the birth of
Bart, and Bart's first act on the earth was to set fire to
Homer's necktie with a lighter. And that's when I knew I needed, at long last, to manufacture a new "blog"trospective, a storehouse for everything I would have put somewhere in
my cigarette lighter book if only it weren't too late to add anything to my cigarette lighter book. Here is that short but growing list:
amazing, but who cares---
ancient death ray of Archimedes---
Aniston, Jennifer; burns a leprechaun's nose with a car cigarette lighter---
Aykroyd, Dan; lights a whole pack of smokes with a blowtorch---
Brown, Larry; spends four pages on the lighting of a cigarette---
Chevalier, Maurice; fails to light a cigarette lighter---
cigarettes and monocles in the early work of Lubitsch---
Columbo borrows a lighter; a comically long flame shoots out---
COUPLE OF COMEDIANS, A (novel by Don Carpenter)---
Cummings, Robert; sets off a sprinkler system by holding a match under it---
Dahl, Arlene; burns John Payne's hand with a lighter---
Disney, Walt; makes a grown man cry and throw away his new lighter---
Eastwood, Clint; mangles his cigarette in his lighter, a la Jerry Lewis---
Eastwood, Clint; needs a light---
Felix from THE ODD COUPLE mangles a cigarette---
Fitzgerald, Barry; uses a small, unidentified cigarette-making (?) machine---
Fitzhugh, Louise; lights Janet Gaynor's cigarette---
five-foot-tall cigarette lighter---
flint and steel of circumstances---
Ghost Rider himself sets off a sprinkler system the way a lighter often does in popular entertainment---
"Gotta Light" Guy from TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN, The---
Grant, U. S.; witnesses tobacco smuggling, corn husk cigarettes---
guy shoots the ends off two cigarettes with a single bullet, a---
heating Pop Tarts one bite at a time---
Hope, Bob; cracks wise about lighters---
Lewis, Jerry; can't find his lighter---
lighter as clue---
lighting of cigarette as an accommodation to power---
Mailer, Norman; narrator of overcome by the solemnity of a cigarette lighter---
man scares panther with cigarette lighter---
Martin, Dean; tosses his gold cigarette lighter out the window---
musical cigarette lighter in FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY---newborn Bart Simpson sets fire to his father's necktie with a lighter (see above)---
Northam, Jeremy; lighter of won't work at crucial moment---
Novak, Kim; requests a light by means of Jack Lemmon's already-lit cigarette---
O'Brien, Edmond; flirts using cigarette lighter---
Powell, William; offered numerous lights simultaneously---
Pryor, Richard; yells "Flick my Bic!" (was that the advertising slogan for the Bic pen or the Bic lighter? In any case, see "link" for rationale)---
Quaid, Dennis; uses lighter to set off fire alarm---
Russell, Kurt; blows an alien's mind with his lighter---
STAR WARS robot gives a "thumbs up" with its built-in lighter---
Stritch, Elaine; fills a cigarette lighter with secret booze---
structurally significant lighter---
Tati, Jacques; tosses lighter out of car window---
undetermined pun based on the name of fire historian Stephen J. Pyne---
use of lighter as spy communication---
use of lighter to impress cavemen---
Wallach, Eli; uses an imaginary cigarette lighter---
what not to do with a lighter on the deck of a warship---
woman asks for a cigarette; men come skittering from every direction, a---
woman dressed as a cigarette lighter frolics behind Miley Cyrus, a. I'm forgetting something.
