Topic: Question about A BIRD IN THE HEAD

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

What is the last line Curly says (in decidedly slurred speech) in A BIRD IN THE HEAD?  I just listened to it three times in a row, and I swear I can't understand a word of it.

[ThumpTheShoes]

"Yeah! Have you got a permit from the OPA?"

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

Whew... I would have never gotten that.  But I just listened to it again and it's really not even that slurred.  I guess I didn't understand it because I never heard of the OPA, much less understand what it would have to do with this scene.  In fact, I still don't get the joke...

[ThumpTheShoes]

Truthfully, I never got it either! I always assumed the OPA had to do with concealed weapons or something like that. There was a discssion, here, about that line some time ago:

A Bird in the Head Discussion

The upshot of it all was that it must have been a reference to Roosevelt's Office of Price Administration. If that's the case, Curly was, likely, making a joke about the possibility of wasting ammo, or it may have been a remark about the building. It is, nonetheless, a dated reference and not one that I assume most modern folk would understand.

Including me! Still!

-Th

[kinderscenen]

OPA?! Wow--I consider myself fairly well read and able to get even the most obscure of old references, but I didn't even know what he was saying, and had no idea what the OPA was. (Now I know!)  I guess I thought he was saying "Do you have a permit?" Perhaps he said that too--I just don't want to watch that short to make sure, since it's rather depressing.  It's funny, but the wallpaper scene? Yikes!