Bandit Man

Overland resident John Gleckler remembers the day his father bought the family's first color TV set. That special date coincided with the TV premiere of Smokey and the Bandit.

Gleckler remains so enamored of the 1977 Burt Reynolds car-chase classic that he recently entered a video tribute in a contest sponsored by the DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Network. Gleckler lost the contest — and with it the chance to claim a restored Trans Am like the one used in film — but Unreal's got to admire the man's can-do spirit. The video can be seen here: www.heavy.com/video/31527. Meanwhile, a few words with the Bandit Man...

Unreal: Why has Smokey and the Bandit stood the test of time?

Gleckler: As a kid I didn't get all the jokes in the movie, but I thought the car chases were great and Jackie Gleason was hilarious. As an adult I loved it on a whole other level.

Admit it, you had a crush on Sally Fields.

Yeah, Sally Fields was pretty cool. Heck, she still is. She was really cute in the movie.

Burt should have never dumped her for Loni Anderson.

Yeah, I heard him say once that he never appreciated how wonderful Sally was and hopes to tell her that sometime.

So you've discussed Burt's love life with him?

No, we've never talked. But if I won the contest, that was one of the things we could have discussed.

You say in your video that the Trans Am is the best movie car ever. That's a bold statement in light of such classics as Steve McQueen's Bullitt Mustang or James Bond's Aston Martin.

It's an arguable point. McQueen's Mustang was pretty awesome. But given the spirit of Smokey and the Bandit, I think it's the superior car. No one gets injured, and no one gets hurt in the movie. The car represents that spirit. It does things you normally wouldn't be able to do and not get hurt. You can jump over rivers and creeks and come out clean. Everyone is fine.

So what are you driving now?

I'm sitting in my 2000 Chevy Cavalier as we speak.

And it can't jump rivers and creeks?

Man, it can't make it over the puddles in my driveway. 

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found a link between clinical diagnosis of alcohol dependence in young adults and having a high number of sex partners... "Some participants in the study reported 50 or 100 partners, and research shows — and common sense tells you — that the more sex partners you have, the more likely you'll encounter someone with an STD," said first author Patricia Cavazos-Rehg, Ph.D., research instructor in the Department of Psychiatry.— via Yahoo! News India

From: Chancellor Wrighton

To: Washington University, Students-ALL

Date: 1/2/08

Re: Sex & Booze

Students:

It has come to our attention that one of our very own researchers recently published the findings of a groundbreaking study concerning a correlation between alcohol use and sexual intercourse.

This news made its way all the way around the world, but in case you hadn't yet heard, we wanted to alert you.

We may draw several conclusions from Dr. Cavazos-Rehg's study:

1) Drinking gets you laid.

2) Drinking a lot gets you laid — a lot.

It may be reasonable to assume an inverse relationship between getting laid and drinking heavily as the activities relate to gender and age — a subject, perhaps, for a future study.

In the meantime, please take the abovementioned information under advisement.