All Work and No Play, or Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar

I'm a fan of the writer Stephen King, and have read his classic book The Shining more than once.  I am also a big fan of the 1980 movie of the same name, starred Jack Nicholson and Shelley DuVall.  ("Oh, and just when do you think maybe he should see a DOCTOR?!?").  It's a tour de force for Nicholson, really.

Why Don't You Go and Check Out the Snow Car?
GO CHECK IT OUT!

So it came as a surprise to read that there is a documentary film called "Room 237," in which a debate swirls around just what the meaning of the movie is, including apparent hidden meanings about the genocide of American Indians, arguments about how the 1969 moon landings were faked, and the like.

It's a paranormal film to be sure, but much of the "evidence" is the sort of "Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre; Kennedy was shot in a Ford product" reasoning.  Examples like the placement of a can of Calumet brand baking powder, the fact that Danny (the little boy in the book/movie who can see and converse with the dead) walks backwards, and the seeming contrast of the yellow VW Beetle the Torrances drive up to the hotel in with a crushed red VW later, seen in a snow storm when the cook is attempting to reach and help Danny.

The New York Times last week dedicated several hundred words to the topic.  Slow news day, I guess.

I dunno.... In the end, Paul was in fact, not dead; the mid-1960s number plate (28 IF) was just an odd (and wrongly made) coincidence, and walruses are not neo-pagan symbols.