My (Im)perfect Cousin?
1 August 2011 7 Comments
in which we start to worry about the source of our inspiration
- Mona Lisa Vito: So what’s your problem?
- Vinny Gambini: My problem is, I wanted to win my first case without any help from anybody.
- Lisa: Well, I guess that plan’s moot.
- Vinny: Yeah.
- Lisa: You know, this could be a sign of things to come. You win all your cases, but with somebody else’s help. Right? You win case, after case, – and then afterwards, you have to go up somebody and you have to say- “thank you“! Oh my God, what a fuckin’ nightmare!
It is one of the all-time great movies, and netted Marisa Tomei an Oscar in the process. Yes it is. It really is1.
Not only that, but My Cousin Vinny2 throws up parallels in real life all the time. Yes it does. It really does3.
Why only recently, I was puzzling over the best (or least worst) way to implement a particularly nonsensical requirement for an intransigent client. After summarising the various unpalatable options in an email, a reply arrived from a generally unproductive source. The message content made it obvious that he’d somewhat missed the point but the conclusion he drew from that misunderstanding triggered a new thought process that gave us a new, even less, er, worser solution to our problem.
Sadly, my unwitting muse has moved on now, but he left his mark for all time4 on our latest product. I suppose he should also take partial credit for the creation of a hitherto unknown development methodology: Powerpoint-Driven Development, but that’s a story for another day.
1 All right, IMHO
2 See also My Cousin Vinny At Work, application of quotes therefrom
3 YMMV.
4 Or at least until we have a better idea and change the whole damn thing
Grumpy Old Programmer 
Hi,
How come you know DrLoser? Are you in America? I know he used to love it over there.
Ignore Claire — she is insane, but lovable.
“My Cousin Vinnie” should have won an Oscar that year. It’s almost certainly the most entertaining movie featuring Joe Pesci where he doesn’t stab somebody in the face with a bal-point pen. Also, you can watch it several times over.
The record on the latter point, as I recall, belongs to my first girlfriend, Becky. Becky (you will not be surprised to learn that she was born in Los Angeles) watched “Harold and Maude” over a hundred times.
I appreciate that, although I feel that Yojimbo would be a better choice.
As for “Power-point development,” Mike, I think Microsoft have beaten you to it. We now have these things called “stacks.” Or is it “slides?” Or something beginning with the letter S, anyway. I need three of the bloody things from the MSN geezer who visited last week, and no matter how hard I try I cannot bring the word to mind.
But it definitely begins with an “S.”
That’s the important thing.
Oh wait, it’s “sheds.”
No it isn’t.
Bollocks, the lack of memory.
Screwdrivers?
Something in the way she wanks?
And neither one of them would get away with that hair, these days.
Sluts? Slinkies? Snorks?
Goddamn but this is going to be a long night.
Great movie. That was on just last week. My daughter watched it with my wife.
Christopher