Page 84: Mashed-potato sculptures: ¿Que demonios?

On page 84, the Spanish exclamation ¿que demonios? is roughly equivalent to the English “What the hell?” or “What the devil?” (literally “demon”)…making it another #DevilReference.

That’s too short for its own blog post, so let’s move on to page 88:

For the crazy chase across the U.S., I selected locations significant in pop/nerd culture that were theoretically drivable. My starting point was Devils Tower not only because it’s a #DevilReference, but also because the site was central to the classic film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). I tried not to be too obvious about the location at this point, instead referring obliquely to a “famous mashed potato sculpture”…which may be lost on people who haven’t seen the movie in a while.

Richard Dreyfuss molds his spud masterpiece in this still image from
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (© 1977, dir Steven Spielberg, Columbia Pictures)

 Here’s YouTube clip of of the scene I’m talking about:

The location’s Close Encounters linkages also serves as a red herring, as the urban legends encountered here have nothing to do with UFOs.

After reading The Billionth Monkey, Jan Harold Brunvand kindly advised me that there’s actually no downhill skiing in this area. I can only hope that the Billionth Monkey effect also has power over geology!