Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Which Was Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

In the vein of esoteric and rhetorical questions like, "what is the sound of one hand clapping" or "if a tree falls on the Pope is a bear Catholic in the woods?" I'd like to propose some of my own.  I'm going to start with this one.

What day was Ferris Bueller's Day Off?

I don't mean what calendar day.  Some have speculated that it was 5 June 1985 because that is supposedly the day of the Cubs game they attended.  Some say it was 28 September 1985 since that was the day of the Von Stueben Day Parade in Chicago that year (except it was on a Saturday).  Personally I think that the June baseball game is unlikely.  All of the other filming in Chicago was after Labor Day in 1985, so why would they have brought the whole crew for an afternoon baseball game three months ahead of the regular shooting schedule and not gone to a White Sox game since John Hughes favored that team?

All of that is not at all what I was asking about.

I want to know, what day of the week was it.  I don't want to ruin the "magic" by bringing in facts and dates.  FBDO is a magical story, a fantasy story.  It captures a time and place that doesn't exist and never really did, but a place that is near and dear to all of us.  To some that place is youth, and a cleverness that they dreamed they had, an optimism that they could do anything.  To me it is that and it's Chicago writ large and celibrated.

I think it was a Thursday.

They went to school on Friday, but what's one day and then they had the weekend.  Friday they got a chance to bask in the glory, they got to make up what they missed.  Taking Thursday off effectively extends the weekend two days, because what's one day at school, just a few hours and you're feeling good all day anyway.

What day do you think it was?  Answer in the poll and tell us why in the comments here.

Go, now, go...

4 comments:

Spockgirl said...

Good question. I think I shall have to go dust off the VCR, grab the VHS and some popcorn later.

Inner Prop said...

Yes, yes, do that and report back.

Spockgirl said...

Ah... I took too long to think about it. I see the poll is now closed. Since I couldn't come up with the day, I will have to say that I know for sure it was NOT Friday.

Inner Prop said...

I haven't forgotten you Spockgirl. I got your PM, and I'm going to work that cool Southpark-ized image in somehow, I just haven't had time yet.