Posted 12:41 AM by John A. Seafisk

Don't look at it, Marian! Well, If you must...

I recently returned from watching 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'...on a big outdoor screen...for free...in an IKEA courtyard area...who supplied us with free Swedish Meatballs...which were actually pretty good...when washed down with some free samples of Muscle Beach Lemonade courtesy of Hot Dog On A Stick. But enough product placements.

It was a fun time --- seeing a good flick, sitting with friends, seeing another set of friends sitting in close approximity and exchanging witty remarks and bon mots. However, there were 2 matters that concerned me:

Numero Uno - The locations of Nazi operations in the "Raiders" time period. At the beginning of the film, a credit reads 'South America 1936'. Thus, we are to believe the action takes place in 1936. Later in the film, we are taken to a massive archeological dig on the outskirts of Cairo...led by a whole bunch of Nazis. First of all, Egypt was still a British protectorate at this time. Even though Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did his darnest to appease Hitler 2 years later in the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany at Czechoslovakia's expense, I doubt that the British Empire would appreciate a large number of Germans -- heavily armed Germans, for that matter -- deep within their colonial territory. In addition, 1936 was the year Germany finally remilitarized the demilitarized Rhineland. The concern of trying to establish armies in your own country may cause a nation to delay in sending mass troops elsewhere. There just weren't any German forces in Africa yet. There were Italians in neighboring Libya and Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), so using Mussolini's men instead of Adolf's might have been more historically believeable. But using Nazis as bad guys instead of Italians was likely for the best, especially anyone of Italian decent who might have been watching.

Numero Dos - My legs hurt. It's hard to get comfortable sitting on a concrete patio for 2 to 3 hours.

But these concerns were minor, and a great time was had by me. Oh, and California Pizza Kitchen was giving away free slices. Dinner and a show - not bad!

And now back to my insomnia.