Fra-Gee-Lay

While I can see the joke, I cannot make a sense of "Fra Gee Lay" rather than the sound of the word "Fragile" which I do know know how it relates to the pic.
Sometimes being a foreigner leaves me puzzled...
 
While I can see the joke, I cannot make a sense of "Fra Gee Lay" rather than the sound of the word "Fragile" which I do know know how it relates to the pic.
Sometimes being a foreigner leaves me puzzled...
Toni, the reference to fragile being pronounces "Fra Gee Lay" comes from the movie A Christmas Story. This is a very popular Christmas movie as it chronicles the life of a 11 year old boy who wants a BB gun for Christmas. In the movie the father of the little boy, Ralphie, who wants the Red Ryder BB gun enters a contest in the local newspaper. A few weeks later he receives a letter in the mail that he has won a "major award".

Time passes and one evening while they are eating dinner they hear a knock at the door. The family goes to see who is there and find two moving men with a large crate. This crate contains the "major award". The crate is brought into the house and laid down on the floor. On its exterior the word "FRAGILE" is stenciled several times. The father says to the family, "FRA GEE LAY", it must be from Italy". He is corrected by his wife immediately.

He tears into the crate with a crow bar and after digging through mounds of wooden excelsior he finds the leg of this lamp. More digging and he finds the lamp shade.

He assembles his lamp and puts it on a table right in the middle of front picture window in the living room for all the neighbors to see.. The wife is less than pleased with the lamp and even less happy about where it is. Ralphie is seen stroking the fishnet stocking clad leg of the lamp. Ralphie. as an adult is the narrator for the movie and makes this comment, "Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window." That one thing was the Little Orphan Annie radio show.

This movie was based on several short stories by author Jean Shephard who wrote many funny stories. His voice was that of the narrator of the movie. He had a radio program where he told stories.
 
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That's interesting... I've seen clips of that movie for years, but never saw the whole story.

I got my Red Ryder BB gun at about 11... it was a hand-me down from my uncle.
Never put my eye out, but did break a tooth with it.
 
I first became aware of Jean Shepherd when I read his short stories in Playboy. Yes, I read the articles. He had at least 26 short stories in Playboy. Even more amazing is that he interviewed the Beatles for Playboy. He also wrote a huge number of articles for Car and Driver. A lot of his funniest short stories were about kids like Ralphie. If you get a chance read Hairy Gertz and the 47 Crappies, a story where Ralphie gets to go fishing with the men; a true coming of age story hilariously presented.

For those who may be interested here is a list of my favorite Jean Shepherd books. His writing is quite funny. I have quite a few in my collection.

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories, A Fistful of Fig Newtons;, A Christmas Story, The Ferrari in the Bedroom, Shep's Army....
 
Toni, the reference to fragile being pronounces "Fra Gee Lay" comes from the movie A Christmas Story. This is a very popular Christmas movie as it chronicles the life of a 11 year old boy who wants a BB gun for Christmas. In the movie the father of the little boy, Ralphie, who wants the Red Ryder BB gun enters a contest in the local newspaper. A few weeks later he receives a letter in the mail that he has won a "major award".

Time passes and one evening while they are eating dinner they hear a knock at the door. The family goes to see who is there and find two moving men with a large crate. This crate contains the "major award". The crate is brought into the house and laid down on the floor. On its exterior the word "FRAGILE" is stenciled several times. The father says to the family, "FRA GEE LAY", it must be from Italy". He is corrected by his wife immediately.

He tears into the crate with a crow bar and after digging through mounds of wooden excelsior he finds the leg of this lamp. More digging and he finds the lamp shade.

He assembles his lamp and puts it on a table right in the middle of front picture window in the living room for all the neighbors to see.. The wife is less than pleased with the lamp and even less happy about where it is. Ralphie is seen stroking the fishnet stocking clad leg of the lamp. Ralphie. as an adult is the narrator for the movie and makes this comment, "Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window." That one thing was the Little Orphan Annie radio show.

This movie was based on several short stories by author Jean Shephard who wrote many funny stories. His voice was that of the narrator of the movie. He had a radio program where he told stories.
Thanks a lot Mike, obviously not knowing the movie you mention I couldn't make grasp the whole joke. But having seen Planet of the Apes several times I could Imagine Charlton Heston seeing that instead of the remains of the Liberty Statue. I'll search on you tube, maybe The Christmas Story is on it, and I'll watch it.
 
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