News You Can Bruise for 2008 February 8 (entry 0)

(1) Fri Feb 08 2008 15:46 Connection:

Lady Velkor, wearing a green peasant blouse and green hotpants, looked around the geodesic Kool-Aid dome. A man in a green turtleneck sweater and green slacks caught her eye, and she walked over to him, asking, "Are you a turtle?"

"You bet your sweet ass I am," he answered eagerly and so she had failed to make contact—and owed this oaf a free drink also."

—The Illuminatus! Trilogy, p601-602

In comments on BoogaBooga it's pointed out that the Turtles also show up in The Right Stuff. I remember that now; I was going to write it down and post this entry several months ago, but I was on a plane with nothing to write with.

Comments:

Posted by Zack at Sun Feb 10 2008 00:31

This explains one of the many traditions of the Columbia University Marching Band that I never got an explanation for. We substituted "Are you a $MUSICIAN" for "Are you a turtle" (with $MUSICIAN being the appropriate word for whatever instrument the target played) but the response was the same.