Since the wrap on production for Back to the Future III actor/comedian Tom Wilson has been answering questions about Back to the Future. It’s gotten a little repetitive. So to save time he carries around text-heavy cards outlining everything he knows and experienced during the filming of the Back to the Future movies. It makes a lot of sense from a sanity standpoint and now Shaun Usher of Letters of Note has shared the message with the masses.

I’ll probably never get to watch Eastwood movies in hot tub full of naked chicks with real life Biff, so I guess this is the next best thing. I especially like how he words Eric Stoltz getting “fired due to performance issues.” Failure to properly make incredulous faces when people keep asking you if you jumped ship is akin to erectile dysfunction, you see.

Full letter after the jump. It’s a fun read that I encourage anyone who had their youth shaped by the Back to the Future trilogy make the time for. Warning: Hoverboard spoilers ahead.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have extolled the virtues of the wonderful blog Letters of Note — an online collection of old and interesting letters — before around these parts. It continues to be one of my favorite things on the internet due to the wonderful things it persists in unearthing, such as Marge Simpson’s letter to Barbara Bush and J.R.R. Tolkien’s holiday letters to his sons. Today brings another interesting find, and this one is downright spectacular.

In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdan — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter…

If you don’t have time to read the 800-word missive written 147 years ago below, allow me to translate for you: “F*ck you, pay me!” Except the letter puts it much more cleverly and eloquently. And while rather hilarious, it’s a harsh reminder of what things were once like for black people in America — I was really struck by the passage where Jourdan Anderson expresses fear that his attractive young daughters would be sexually assaulted by the Colonel’s sons should he, in fact, return to his employ. Enjoy…

Read the rest of this entry »

This past summer, the wonderful blog Letters of Note posted a handwritten letter legendary fantasy writer J.R.R. Tolkien, posing as “Father Christmas,” wrote to his three boys. It was a single chapter in what became a tradition in the Tolkien home.

In December of 1920, J. R. R. Tolkien secretly began what would become an annual event in his household for the next 20 years: in the guise of a shaky-handed Father Christmas, he lovingly handwrote a letter to his 3-year-old son, John; placed it in an envelope along with an illustration of his home near the North Pole; and planted it in the youngster’s bedroom. From then on, until 1943, Father Christmas never failed to write to all of Tolkien’s four children, and with each passing Winter his enchanting stories from the North Pole became more elaborate and character-filled. In 1976 many of the letters and illustrations were compiled and released in book-form; in 2004 a far more comprehensive and beautifully crafted version was published: Letters from Father Christmas; 25th Anniversary edition.

Below is the letter of note. I promise you it’s more imaginative than any letter my parents or yours probably ever wrote to Santa on our behalf…

Read the rest of this entry »

This will probably be hard for some of you to imagine, but at one time — back when New Kids on the Block were causing teenage girl panties to cream and Michael Keaton was Batman — The Simpsons was considered edgy and controversial. Yeah, I know, shocking right? Personally, I stopped watching the show at some point during the early days of the Clinton administration, but from what I remember of it back then I found it about as edgy as white bread, but hey, whatever.

So when she was asked about it in an interview with People magazine, then-First Lady Barbara Bush — a sweet old lady who once kept her dead fetus in a jar just because — blasted the show as “the dumbest thing I have ever seen,” and future Playboy centerfold Marge Simpson didn’t take too kindly to that.

Read the rest of this entry »