Welcome to Jurassic Park: Squeak Edition
Plus new music releases, Nobel laureates, and CIA hackers
This weekend, I am going to see the new Jurassic Park movie. It’s called Jurassic World: Dominion and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be terrible. But I am still incredibly excited.
I think we all have a movie that hit us at the exact perfect age and somehow melded into our personality forever. For me, Jurassic Park was as good as it gets. Over the years, I have watched it more times than I can count, I’ve performed reenactments live on stage, I wrote papers about in college courses, and there was a 5 year period where if I was ever asked to perform in a talent show I would do an unsettlingly accurate impression of a velociraptor. (Many a performance ended with someone uncomfortably saying “ok, that’s enough.”)
As I got deeper and deeper into Jurassic Park, one scene in particular always made me laugh and inspired lengthy debates with friends. It’s the scene where Dennis Nedry (played by Wayne Knight, who you probably know as Newman from Seinfeld) opens up a special can of shaving cream and sees that it’s got a special compartment for him to smuggle dino DNA in. As he laughs, the can opens and then… there is a TRULY BIZARRE squeal.
So here’s the question: was it Newman or was it the can?
To this day, I can simply say “Newman or the can?” to any of my high school friends and they will instantly start spouting off detailed theories and heated opinions. At one point, hoping to settle the debate once and for all, I wrote and mailed a letter to the screenwriter David Koepp asking if the squeal was written into the script or not. He never wrote back. If anyone has connections to David Koepp, Steven Spielberg, or the original sound department on the film, please forward this email their way.
To this day, the debate rages on.
Newman or the can?
Watch the clip here and decide for yourself.
Shows (in-person and online)
WASHINGTON, DC: Live at the DC Improv - Sunday, July 31st at 7 p.m. I’m headlining a comedy show hosted and produced by the hilarious Kasha Patel. This is going to sell out so get your tickets now! Tickets here
This week’s list
GREAT:
June is a great month for new music apparently. A bunch of my friends are releasing projects that I’m excited about (and you might be too). This week, Kayla Ringelheim put out her new album, Returning Home. If you’re in Seattle, do not miss the chance to see The Westerlies live at Westerlies Fest. And I continue to feel so glad I subscribed to Greta Morgan’s Patreon where she’s sharing new music, photos, and writing.
FUNNY:
This is less “laugh out loud” funny and more “smile in a small delighted way” funny, but I really enjoyed reading this piece where Nobel Laureates share things they don’t understand about their own fields. Nobel Endeavours
INTERESTING:
“A hot-headed coder is accused of exposing the agency’s hacking arsenal. Did he betray his country because he was pissed off at his colleagues?” Patrick Radden Keefe reports a wild story that involves Nerf gun battles, elite hackers, and complete CIA dysfunction. The Surreal Case of a C.I.A. Hacker’s Revenge (If you enjoy that article, I can’t recommend the book Legacy of Ashes highly enough. It will forever change the way you think about U.S. intelligence agencies.)
BONUS FOR PAYING SUBSCRIBERS:
Paying subscribers have access to the full archive, discussion threads, and my eternal gratitude. Thank you to everyone who is a paid subscriber to Bright Spots for making this newsletter possible. As an additional bonus for paying subscribers, here is a video of me doing my velociraptor impression. If you’re dying to see it, it’s never too late to subscribe and join the club.
That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! Please help spread the word and forward Bright Spots along to anyone you think might enjoy it.
In my heart, it will always be Newman.
Chris Duffy
This has been Bright Spots, a newsletter.
…wait, who are you?
I'm Chris Duffy, a comedian, TV writer, podcast host, and both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student.