with both eyes open

[sergebroom]

Remember that episode of The Twilight Zone where an old man and his dog die in a hunting accident? As they walk across the countryside, their trail leads them to what looks like the entrance to Heaven, and to a friendly character who invites him in. The old man almost steps in, but his dog starts barking furiously. The old man won't go in without his dog so he decides he doesn't want to go to Heaven after all and wanders off. Further down the trail, he comes across another Gate and discover that this is Heaven and that the other place definitely was not. As the angel explains to the old man,

"You see, Mr.Simpson, a man, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open -- but even the Devil can't fool a dog!"

One can hope for Jerry Falwell's sake that he had a dog with him. I have four of them, and, if there were an AfterLife, I hope they'd put in a few good woofs for me.

Comments

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

I don't think I ever saw that one, but it's true. Our dog, also, seems to smell evil. He never liked the scary old guy who lived next door, and went crazy every time he walked past our house. We found out later that he was a registered sex offender.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Even the dumbest dog can tell when something is wrong.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

By the way, that episode was The Hunt. During the Holidays, the SciFi Channel runs a The Twilight Zone marathon, and that episode often shows up. So does One For The Angels, where an old street vendor cheats Death, who, to make up for it, instead chooses a little girl who's a friend of the old man and the latter has to convince Death to take him instead after all. And not to be missed is In Praise of Pip where a man feels like a failure in every aspect of his life, the one exception being his son. But his son is dying in Vietnam, and the man makes a deal with the Universe so that he'll die instead of his son.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Why would one hope that for Falwell? Or are you thinking of Byron's treatment of George III in The Vision of Judgment:

As for the rest, to come to the conclusion
Of this true dream, the telescope is gone
Which kept my optics free from all delusion,
And show'd me what I in my turn have shown.
All I saw farther, in the last confusion,
Was, that King George slipp'd into heaven for one;
And when the tumult dwindled to a calm,
I left him practicing the hundreth psalm.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

A foolish moment of generosity, maybe?

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Or just that you're a decent person and can't abide cruelty, even to Falwell.

[miltonthales.livejournal.com]

There's something to be said for practicing Christian charity towards a man who denied it to so many.

That said, serge, you're a better man than I. I have a vision of Falwell, Robertson, Fred Phelps, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and a whole slew of their followers stuck in one of Dante's circles, eternally condemned to dance an Irish jig because the metal floor is too hot for them to stand on for longer than a moment.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think so. I don't always believe that though.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

...while, in Heaven, God turns out to look like Alanis Morrissette.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Now, that's a vision!

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

That commnet, by the way, is not meant to be offensive or sacrilegous.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I do think so.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Drat. That's 'comment', not 'commnet', which sounds like a cyberpunk neologism.