Hurrah for Captain Tuttle!
Jul. 1st, 2010 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogI vaguely remember mentioning this here once before, but there's always some n00bs, plus now we have some news to go with it.
When we moved here, almost 16 years ago, we were assigned a phone number which, apparently, hadn't been out of circulation for very long. After the first few months, but well into the next decade, the trickle of former-owner wrong numbers was down to just one.
Could I speak to Minor Tuttle, please?
Ol' MT was a popular guy. At times, he'd get more random calls in a week than we did, at least on our house line. Many of them seemed, well, a little shady. Most had the sound of call center about them, and with one notable exception, nobody ever identified themselves. The one that did was the U.S. Customs Service. Granted, that might have been about a package waiting for him at his local post office, but somehow, we suspected something more sinister after all the years of it. We even tried looking him up over the years, to see if he wanted us to give out his new number, but even in those primordial days when Google was known simply as GVVG, we were never able to find him. ("Why should he worry about a listed number?," one of us said to the other. "That's what he has US for.")
Any name would have been weird enough, but having Tuttle as the last name was even stranger, as any longtime MASH fan knows. A first season ep, titled simply "Tuttle," involved Hawkeye making up a new surgeon for the 4077th out of thin air, and then convincing the entire camp, especially Hot Lips, that he was real.
Hawkeye: [creating Tuttle's service record] Religion?
Traper: Atheist.
Hawyeye: I don't believe in atheism. Let's make him a Druid.
Radar: What's that?
Hawkeye: They worship trees.
Radar: Ah, a tree surgeon.
Hawkeye: [writing] Druid, reformed. They're allowed to pray at bushes.
...
Hawkeye: Now something for Hotlips. Height: 6 foot 4. Weight: 195 pounds. Hair: Auburn. Eyes: Hazel...
Trapper: Hawkeye, I think I'm in love.
The Wikipiece-ia for it reminded of me of two things, one I caught years later and one not until now. Tuttle became so real that the Army felt a need to pay him, so there's a scene where the boys encounter the finance officer in charge of his pay. That actor would, years later, go on to play the SWAT-aholic on Hill Street Blues known as Howard Hunter. What I just learned is that "Tuttle" is the only MASH ep where Sparky, Radar's longtime phone pal, actually appeared in the flesh. (He was played by the immortal Dennis Fimple, who had bit parts in everything from the original BSG to Quantum Leap, before his death in 2002.)
----
Ah, but I digress.
The library called last night to tell me a book was in, so after cardio today, I shot over to Clearfield, the closest of our town libraries with the longest hours. As I waited for the page to, well, page or something, my eyes wandered to the CLEARFIELD LIBRARY THANKS ITS VOLUNTEERS plaque to the side of the circulation desk, and there, plain as day, was the name
MINER TUTTLE III.
Wow. First Jimmy Hoffa, and now we find this:)
I asked the page if Miner (damn misspelling all these years) still worked there. He didn't know, but one of the other people said he didn't.
Armed with the new spelling, I tried Google again just now. No Facebook (although there are two different Minor Turtles), and for that matter, no nothin.
We haven't had that phone number for about five years now, but suddenly the game's afoot again. Maybe Berlin Polytechnic has an alumni association.
When we moved here, almost 16 years ago, we were assigned a phone number which, apparently, hadn't been out of circulation for very long. After the first few months, but well into the next decade, the trickle of former-owner wrong numbers was down to just one.
Could I speak to Minor Tuttle, please?
Ol' MT was a popular guy. At times, he'd get more random calls in a week than we did, at least on our house line. Many of them seemed, well, a little shady. Most had the sound of call center about them, and with one notable exception, nobody ever identified themselves. The one that did was the U.S. Customs Service. Granted, that might have been about a package waiting for him at his local post office, but somehow, we suspected something more sinister after all the years of it. We even tried looking him up over the years, to see if he wanted us to give out his new number, but even in those primordial days when Google was known simply as GVVG, we were never able to find him. ("Why should he worry about a listed number?," one of us said to the other. "That's what he has US for.")
Any name would have been weird enough, but having Tuttle as the last name was even stranger, as any longtime MASH fan knows. A first season ep, titled simply "Tuttle," involved Hawkeye making up a new surgeon for the 4077th out of thin air, and then convincing the entire camp, especially Hot Lips, that he was real.
Hawkeye: [creating Tuttle's service record] Religion?
Traper: Atheist.
Hawyeye: I don't believe in atheism. Let's make him a Druid.
Radar: What's that?
Hawkeye: They worship trees.
Radar: Ah, a tree surgeon.
Hawkeye: [writing] Druid, reformed. They're allowed to pray at bushes.
...
Hawkeye: Now something for Hotlips. Height: 6 foot 4. Weight: 195 pounds. Hair: Auburn. Eyes: Hazel...
Trapper: Hawkeye, I think I'm in love.
The Wikipiece-ia for it reminded of me of two things, one I caught years later and one not until now. Tuttle became so real that the Army felt a need to pay him, so there's a scene where the boys encounter the finance officer in charge of his pay. That actor would, years later, go on to play the SWAT-aholic on Hill Street Blues known as Howard Hunter. What I just learned is that "Tuttle" is the only MASH ep where Sparky, Radar's longtime phone pal, actually appeared in the flesh. (He was played by the immortal Dennis Fimple, who had bit parts in everything from the original BSG to Quantum Leap, before his death in 2002.)
----
Ah, but I digress.
The library called last night to tell me a book was in, so after cardio today, I shot over to Clearfield, the closest of our town libraries with the longest hours. As I waited for the page to, well, page or something, my eyes wandered to the CLEARFIELD LIBRARY THANKS ITS VOLUNTEERS plaque to the side of the circulation desk, and there, plain as day, was the name
MINER TUTTLE III.
Wow. First Jimmy Hoffa, and now we find this:)
I asked the page if Miner (damn misspelling all these years) still worked there. He didn't know, but one of the other people said he didn't.
Armed with the new spelling, I tried Google again just now. No Facebook (although there are two different Minor Turtles), and for that matter, no nothin.
We haven't had that phone number for about five years now, but suddenly the game's afoot again. Maybe Berlin Polytechnic has an alumni association.