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Like a Snake Swallowing an Egg: Thoughts from Florida

2010-10-11 · letter vlog · Hank · 2:49 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life · mode: Personal essay · tags: on location, recurring series

Back in Florida for a friend's wedding, Hank finds he had remembered his home state too negatively, and concludes that what he misses is not the place but the people he loved there.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Morning in Florida: run, fish, pool; heat, air conditioning, everyone in SUVs

  • ★★ Hank wakes at nine, goes for a run, looks at some fish and, because it is so hot and humid, jumps into a pool; he is in Florida. — 00:00:00 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank says it is very hot everywhere the air isn't conditioned, so no one is outside and everyone, himself included, is stuck in huge SUVs. (playful) — 00:00:12 · Florida

00:00:29 — The rental 'real big truck'; a selectively negative memory of Florida; its downsides

  • ★ Enterprise rental car gives Hank a 'quadruple upgrade' to a 'real big truck'; he jokes that in Montana it would be called a boat, not a truck. (playful) — 00:00:24 · Montana
  • ★★★ Hank lived in Florida most of his life and, after moving away, saw much wrong with it; now he realizes his memory of it was selectively negative. (hedged) — 00:00:40 · Florida
  • ★★ Hank lists Florida's downsides: unnecessarily hot, a ridiculously bright sun, big cars needed everywhere, styrofoam cups, and fire ants, which stung him, deservedly. (playful) — 00:00:50 · Florida

00:00:58 — Fire ants (he got stung); things he loves: sweet tea, Waffle House, the variety of life

  • ★★ Hank says there are also things he loves: sweet tea, Waffle House, and a sun that breeds a variety of life Montana can't compare with. — 00:01:06 · Montana, Florida

00:01:29 — What he misses is the reason he's there: a friend's wedding and old college friends; the best reasons to love a place are people; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank realizes he misses not Florida but the reason he is there: a friend's wedding, with old college friends he hasn't seen in almost 10 years. — 00:01:29 · Florida
  • ★ Hank finds it extraordinarily upsetting that almost 10 years have passed since he graduated from college. (playful) — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ Hank says most of the best reasons to love a place are people: he loves Florida for the people he loved there and will keep loving forever. — 00:01:51 · Florida
  • ★ Hank says he walked away from the pool to film this because he didn't want his friends to hear him get sappy. — 00:02:04

00:02:23 — Outtake: Steak and Shake fries; someone eats something in two bites, 'like a snake swallowing an egg'

Humor (significant)

  • Hank shows himself looking in the viewscreen after waking up, quoting a meme. — 00:00:01

    “My hair is a bird, your argument is invalid.”

  • Enterprise gives Hank a 'quadruple upgrade' to a 'real big truck'. — 00:00:35

    “we don't call something a truck unless you can throw a bull elk in the back of it.”

  • Off camera, someone eats something in two bites while friends watch and cheer. — 00:02:47

    “Like a snake swallowing an egg.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Florida · nostalgia

Also: Enterprise Rent-A-Car · Montana · Steak 'n Shake · Tallahassee International Airport · Waffle House · Your argument is invalid

Only in the description or credits: Thoughts from Places

Also centred on nostalgia: Hanging with High School Hank · Zero Severed Hands: On Star Wars and Making Things · You Can't Go Home Again, but I Tried

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