Francis Berger
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One Movie Cliché You Can Count On in Real Life

7/17/2022

6 Comments

 
We've all seen films involving ropes, wires, and cords that tangle, catch, and snag on objects in the most unbelievable ways. In films, these tangles, catches, and snags lead to various outcomes such as saving the hero from plunging into a gorge or foiling a villain who gets unexpectedly tripped up as he moves to push the flashing red button that would unleash a nuclear catastrophe. 

Having spent the last few months working in the garden and working around the house using all sorts of ropes, strings, extension cords, and hoses, I can confirm that the "rope/cord/wire inevitably gets caught on object" is a very real phenomenon that is not restricted to trite scenes in movies. 

For example, if I am working with an extension cord, I can count on that cord wrapping itself around a tree or piece of furniture. If I am working with a garden hose, that hose will ultimately get caught up on any and all nearby objects rather than effortlessly move across the lawn. And so on. 

So, if you ever happen to find yourself falling off a cliff or skidding toward a gorge, do yourself a favor and grab the nearest rope or wire. You can be assured that the rope or wire will wrap itself around something and, ultimately, save your life. 
6 Comments
bruce charlton
7/17/2022 09:46:58

Even as a kid, I was suspicious of the way that heroes would throw a grapping hook over a bar, after which the hook would firmly grasp the rope and allow safe climbing. In real life there would be a tangle of hook/ rope/ bar - that would pretend to be secure, only to give-way just as the climber was high enough to be killed.

This business of ropes and hoses is surely entropic/ demonic - almost never ordered and creative.

A string or rope will never weave itself into anything useful - but only into a mass of evil toils.

Every time I stretch-out the garden hose, it makes a loop leading to a tight kink which shuts-off the water. The kink cannot be shaken free, but I need to go back and manually untangle it.

...It takes one of God's children to undo the spontaneous influences of the evil ruler of this world.

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Francis Berger
7/17/2022 21:27:28

@ Bruce - Great comment!

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Luke
7/18/2022 00:07:32

You English!
I have imagined this comment delivered by John Cleese to Michael Palin, titled "On the Evil nature of knots" and it has me in stitches.

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Epimetheus
7/18/2022 23:24:44

Extension cords are under Satan's dominion.

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JMSmith link
7/19/2022 14:13:23

As a former mountaineer, I must tell you that ropes never get caught. Fortunately I was never at the end of an untethered rope that went snaking over the brink of a precipice, but I did have to hike round a retrieve ropes that snaked off in this way. Nowadays I spend more time on yard work, and you are right that extension cords and hoses catch on everything. If you actually added these things up, you would have statistical proof that we live in a fallen world. There is more "bad luck" than "good luck" in it.

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Francis Berger
7/19/2022 14:34:00

@ JM - Well, that settles it then. I speculated that if ropes got tangled in the bad luck sense, then they may also get tangled in a good luck sense. That speculation is obviously wrong, as it appears the phenomenon does not exist. As Bruce put it above, the business of ropes and hoses is surely demonic/entropic!

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