Whippersnapper Advantage #23: They Are More Likely To Recognize When They’re Standing Next To A Tin Woodman

 

In the classic film The Wizard of Oz (1939) there’s a scene that takes place in the Wicked Witch’s castle, where Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Woodman (and Toto, too!) are cornered in the castle’s great room, with halberd-armed guards advancing menacingly towards them. The situation appears to be completely hopeless when the (supposedly brainless) Scarecrow notices that the massive candelabra hanging high in the room is suspended by a rope, and that rope just happens to be secured to a cleat on the wall right next to them. When the Wicked Witch, who is standing on a mezzanine above them, throws the large hourglass to the floor where it explodes, the Scarecrow simply grabs the Tin Woodsman’s axe and severs the rope (he doesn’t even remove the axe from the Tin Woodman’s grasp, or tell him what’s going on), dropping the massive candelabra onto the assembled guards. The protagonists then escape (temporarily) in the confusion.

I was reminded of this scene recently when I was working a little project of my own, restoring a 29-year-old sedan that I use for getting around my far-flung workplace. It has over 200,000 miles on the odometer, and it was looking so ratty that I was concerned my co-workers would take me for a ragamuffin. Here’s a before picture: