ShadyGreenThumb's blog: Call Me Names

Posted on Aug 20, 2012 8:44 PM

What's with everyone around here calling me names?  First Dh--then the Neighbor?  So what I am in my garden in near 100* heat? (Yeah it's cooled down some) I pick off the fallen leaves and pine needles off my hanging plants, stake up some of the tall plants, take a whiff of sweet ginger here and there. Not much hard work going on. It's almost 100* after all.  And yet, they call me "Chauncey"?  Wasn't Chauncey a guy?!  Who us Chauncy Gardener anyway. I thought I would look it up:

From Wikipedia

Being There is a 1979 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby.

snip

Chance (Peter Sellers) is a middle-aged man who lives in the townhouse of an old, wealthy man in Washington D.C. He seems simple-minded and has lived there his whole life tending the garden. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. When his benefactor dies, Chance is forced to leave and discovers the outside world for the first time.

He wanders aimlessly, wearing his former employer's expensive clothes. Chance passes by a TV shop and sees himself captured by a camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a car owned by Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), an elderly business mogul.

Rand's wife Eve (Shirley MacLaine) brings Chance to their home to recover. Drinking alcohol for the first time, Chance coughs as he tells them his name. "Chance the Gardener" is misheard as "Chauncey Gardiner". Judging by his appearance and manners, Rand assumes that Chance is an upper class, highly educated business man. Chance's style and seemingly insightful ways embody the qualities Rand admires. Chance's simplistic utterances about gardens are interpreted as allegorical statements about business and the state of the economy.

Rand is also a confidant and adviser of the U.S. President (Jack Warden), whom he introduces to "Chauncey". The president interprets Chance's remarks about how the garden changes with the seasons as economic and political advice. Chance, as Chauncey Gardiner, quickly rises to national public prominence. He becomes a media celebrity with an appearance on a television talk show and soon rises to the top of Washington society. Public opinion polls start to reflect just how much his "simple brand of wisdom" resonates with the jaded American public.

OK, So Chauncey Gardener was not so bad!  I guess I will take it as a compliment. I need to see that movie.



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