What took so long?

It finally happened. I got an email from a reader who asked me why I end each post with the tagline, Good Day to You, Sir. It's actually a pretty vague but meaningful reference.

Of all things, it comes from the 1991 Oliver Stone film, JFK. There is a scene where Jim Garrison (as played by Kevin Costner) is having lunch in a New Orleans restaurant with a sleazy lawyer (as played by the late, great John Candy) who had earlier represented Clay Shaw, the man Garrison put on trial for the murder of John Kennedy. During the lunch meeting, Garrison is trying to ascertain some crucial information from the lawyer, but the lawyer is stonewalling and refusing to give up the information, for he knows he will die if he talks. Finally, Garrison loses his temper and threatens to subpoena the lawyer and put him on the stand. At this point, the lawyer also loses his temper, bolts out of his chair, stands over Garrison, and loudly berates him to drop this entire case, because Kennedy is "as dead as that crabmeat!" After the lawyer is done yelling, he calmly collects himself, puts on his hat and sunglasses, and as he saunters away from the table, he bids "Good day to you, Sir" to a still astonished Garrison.

That scene always struck me funny that no matter how much both men lost their tempers and sniped at each other, the lawyer was still fully able to depart with that classic southern charm by wishing his opponent well as he disengaged. That is how I like to think I run this blog. Even if you disagree with me, to the point of hating me personally ( I still remember one commenter calling me an asshole), it is always my hope that we can walk away from our disagreement in a friendly manner in the tradition of that obscure scene from a very flawed movie... but it's still one of my favorite films of all time!

Good Day to You, Sir