More Clips? Eclipse!

From Season 2, Episode 14 of “The A-Team” entitled “In Plane Sight”:

B.A. Baracus: Hey, Hannibal, I ain’t flying, man. Now I don’t know how you guys be getting me in and out of these planes, but this time I’m ready for you. This time…

Face, Hannibal: Eclipse.

[B.A. falls into a hypnotic trance]

Yes, this is the episode wherein the team decides the best way to get BA to fly with them to “somewhere in Venezula” is to hypnotize him. But they need a trigger word and the client/hypnotist suggests the word, “Eclipse.” All well and good until the Team gets pinned down in a firefight and Faceman (or maybe it’s Hannibal) says he needs “more clips.” BA of course hears “eclipse” and it’s goodnight Mr. T.  [Spoiler Alert: Eventually the Team escapes and saves the day.]

CORRECTION on August 22, 2017: The correct quote as Face shouts over machine gun fire is, “Gimme clips!”  That phrasing obviously works much better as a trigger for BA’s hypnotic trance.  I am embarrassed and ashamed to have propagated false information on the Internet, which is usually such a paragon of truth and reliability.  I apologize to everyone, everywhere, but most especially to Babs Greyhosky, the credited writer on “In Plane Sight.”

Anytime I hear the word “eclipse” this is what I think of first. Eventually it’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” Or “Ladyhawke.” Or any other cinematic/televisual stories that deploy the eclipse trope. But none are as seared into my brain as the A-Team.

Point is, today was the big “Eclipse of the Century/Millennium/Greatest of All Time (GOAT).” I didn’t buy any viewing spectacles and despite my secret shame of scarfing down cereal like it was going out of style, I couldn’t be bothered to make a viewer out of a box.

I figured others would shoot enough photos/video that I could experience it virtually well enough. But I did go out for a run during the “totality pathway.” Here in Los Angeles, we were only going to get up to 69% totality so, shrug.

For me, the sky appeared as it would with smoke from a brushfire, a sorta haze-y darkness in the day thing that I found just sorta, well, meh. And though I tried not to look, I suspect I did… and I did try snapping a few shots on the run without really looking… but somehow I’m sure I did. I don’t know if I’m being hypochondriac-y or if it’s a real thing, but I do feel like I’m not seeing as well as I did yesterday. I’m probably going blind. Swell.

The eclipse is a reminder that the world, and the universe, is bigger than the hill of beans of our own problems. One would hope it might inspire a newfound spirit of cooperation, goodwill, peace, and understanding, that if we are so small and insignificant, perhaps we should stop trying to be awful to each other and pass the time a bit more sociably. But given the state of global affairs this is probably naivety of the highest order.

As for me, I’m feeling small yet pudgy, insignificant yet I’m writing on an eponymous blog that’s all about me, me, me. I’m conflicted and depressed and not only because I would think the world revolves around me when clearly, ya know, eclipse.  I’m struggling with life, the universe, and everything.

That said, though I didn’t have a polarizing filter or means to capture the spectacle on my iPhone with any degree of skill or clarity, here’s a CGI’d “dramatization” of the event over the horizon of the house.

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