IVIV: The Feds

[Joe Allonby]

"The FBI" was in fact on Sunday nights. Efrem Zimbalist Jr. His
daughter was in one of the Billy Jack movies. "Trial of Billy Jack" I
believe.

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 12:48 AM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> Doc walks Penny back to work at her request, which is really just an
> excuse to hand him over to Special Agents Flatweed and Borderline.
>
> Anyone with "flat" in their name, or "border" or "line" is bound to be
> up to no good in a P novel. Not so sure about the weed though...
>
> Did some googling and came across someone asking a dope forum what
> "flat" weed refers to. Answers suggested that it's cheap, mass
> produced marijuana packed into bricks. Not good quality. As one puts
> it: "flat weed is a mass produced schwag weed usually seedy and low
> quality..
> they plantations that grow this "flat weed" will grow 100's some time
> 1000's of plants at a time and will stick the finished product in a
> large vice and compact the shit out of it and cut them into the
> quantity they're selling them in pounds or kilos..."
>
> Like the vice reference.
>
> Borderline was a 1950 film in which customs agents attempt to sort out
> and capture a complex dope-smuggling ring in Mexico. Starred Fred
> MacMurray (whose big noir moment was of course Double Indemnity) and
> the bad guy was Raymond Burr (who's mentioned in Vineland).
>
> Borderline also brings up borderline personality disorder, but I don't
> see how BPD would be relevant here.
>
> ------
>
> "Gotta say I've always admired you guys, eight P.M. every Sunday
> night, wow, I never miss an episode!" says Doc. He's either obviously
> taking the piss or doing that fake "I'm just a dumb doper" routine.
>
> What show is this referring to? "The F.B.I"? That's what I'm guessing,
> and we get a ref to the show's lead character Lew Erskine shortly.
> Fits in with Doc's frequent lament regarding the conditioning effect
> of 60s/70s law enforcement TV.
>
> In fact the first comment on the IMDB listing for FBI is a case in point:
>
> "I swore I was going to grow up to work for the F.B.I. -- that's how
> wonderful and influential this program was...
>
> He had a convertible RED Mustang!!! He would travel the world, take
> out the criminals...and then at the end cruise Washington, DC in a RED
> CONVERTABLE MUSTANG!!! And...end up at his Washington, DC Brownstone!!
> I mean, how cool of a job was THAT?!?!?! "
>
> ------
>
> Doc is pretty straight in this scene. Penny excuses herself to the
> bathroom, but Doc knows "her gait when she had to piss, and this
> wasn't it."
>
> That's pretty amazing detective work. I doubt I'd ever make that kind
> of observation.
>
> -----
>
> Doc takes "a second and a half to get spiritually prepared". Odd little phrase.
>
> -----
>
> "Come on, Larry, let's find us a cup of joe." Dialogue right out of a
> TV script. And the feds start off by suggesting a nice legal drug they
> can share. Doc wonders when he'll get to smoke a joint again.
>