April 3, 2024

Wake up and smell the instant coffee....

Yesterday, at 2:18 PM, 3 posts down, I was talking about "talking about instant coffee," and then, that evening, I was rewatching my old favorite movie "My Dinner with Andre" and that line jumped out: "we drank instant coffee out of the top of my shaving cream."

A big theme in this movie is whether, when things connect up, it's not just a coincidence but something mystical and important, such as when Andre — after feeling he's heard the voice of The Little Prince — runs across a copy of an old surrealist magazine with a page of handprints from 4 eminent men whose names begin with the letter A and 3 of them are Andres and the other one is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Wikipedia has this about Saint-Exupéry:
In The Little Prince, its narrator, the pilot, talks of being stranded in the desert beside his crashed aircraft. The account clearly drew on Saint-Exupéry's own experience.... On 30 December 1935, at 2.45am, after 19 hours and 44 minutes in the air, Saint-Exupéry, along with his copilot-navigator André Prévot, crashed in the Sahara desert....

See? A random Andre.

Both miraculously survived the crash, only to face rapid dehydration in the intense desert heat. Their maps were primitive and ambiguous. Lost among the sand dunes with a few grapes, a thermos of coffee, a single orange, and some wine, the pair had only one day's worth of liquid.

Coffee! 

They both began to see mirages, which were quickly followed by more vivid hallucinations. By the second and third days, they were so dehydrated that they stopped sweating altogether. Finally, on the fourth day, a Bedouin on a camel discovered them and administered a native rehydration treatment....

21 comments:

Kate said...

You look like you could use a cup of my famous java.

R C Belaire said...

AA : Did you write yesterday's post knowing you were going to lead with this post today? Sounds like a set-up to me...

Big Mike said...

Do not drink wine if you’re facing dehydration! It only makes you thirstier.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Synchronicities. See Jung.

Mr. O. Possum said...

Saw "Andre" when it came out. It was on a double-bill with "Escape from New York"

Temujin said...

What instant coffee used to be able to do. I miss it.
Coffee??

rehajm said...

I want to know more about this bedouin rehydration treatment. What is it if it isn’t give the man some water? Slice open the camel with your light saber and put the body inside?

John henry said...

Did they dribble coffee on themselves?

Most shaving cream tops have a small hole in them to prevent any pressure buildup.

At least the kind of tops that could conceivably be used as cups

John Henry

Michael said...

a native rehydration treatment....

In other words, an enema

Jaq said...

I liked The Flight of the Phoenix better, at least the book, which I found compelling, I couldn't sit through the movie, maybe because it relied too much on the "drama" of whether the plane was going to work, which we all knew it would, and the novel was more psychological. IDK, it's been a long time since I read it. Maybe I am just making that up.

Scott Patton said...

"R C Belaire said...
AA : Did you write yesterday's post knowing you were going to lead with this post today? Sounds like a set-up to me..."

it's not just a coincidence but something mystical and important

Ann Althouse said...

"What instant coffee used to be able to do...."

Hilarious.

It creeped me out though. Had to turn it off. So smarmy!

Ann Althouse said...

"I want to know more about this bedouin rehydration treatment. What is it if it isn’t give the man some water?"

I think it's a 0.9% saline solution. I'm finding articles about Bedouins saving dehydrated goats.

Nancy said...

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." (Albert Einstein)

Original Mike said...

"Do not drink wine if you’re facing dehydration! It only makes you thirstier."

If I'm going to die, I'm drinking the wine.

Anthony said...

Kate said...
You look like you could use a cup of my famous java.



Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!

I, at least, got that one.

Joe Smith said...

Too much hoity-toity stuff.

Where are the goddamn car chases, explosions, and naked chick?

Ambrose said...

And “instant tea” prominent in todays NYT crossword.

Anthony said...

OMG, I just watched the Gold Blend video.

GILES. From Buffy.

(Lawdy, what would 1980s Me think of 2024 Me typing those two sentences on this wondrous Internet thingie that I would have assumed everyone would be using for....something better)

Oligonicella said...

Expositional movies aren't my cup of tea.

It's not that interesting to read or watch fictional conversation.

lonejustice said...

This post reminds me of one of my favorite movies: "The English Patient."