Surprise of the Thin Man

We Americans may have a more-or-less well-deserved reputation for having no interest in nor sense of history. After all, if history isn't destiny, then why bother with it? And sometimes we actually do manage to scrape the odd benefit from ignoring it.

Case in point: evidently, 'pro wrestling' has been around as a widely recognized fraud since at least 1940! I mean, who knew? Not I, that's for sure. But there you have it, right in the middle of Shadow of the Thin Man: a wrestling match that used the same jump-on-the-guy-and-elbow-him-in-the-back move that Hulk Hogan introduced to us members of the effete bourgeoix so comparatively recently. And the wrestlers weren't exerting themselves so greatly that they were breathing heavily when they exchanged farewells with Myrna Loy.

And – AND! – the word 'pill' in reference to an annoying person has apparently meant that for far longer than the 10 years I had thought: it, too, was used that way in that self-same movie.

Just think, if we actually cared about history and the things the present shares with the past, this'd have been no surprise at all, and what fun would that have been?