The uncure for insomnia: "What happened to my teeth?"

Despite being on Court TV, and therefore ostensibly safe for late-night consumption, the reruns of Homicide in which Frank Pembleton's got someone in the box and is being, well, you know, are epically unsafe late-night fare:

There’s a word for your face, for the teeth you have left, and that word is danger, grave danger, because that word is “fear,” but it sounds like “snap,” because that word is “pain,” and it whistles, up through the lungs it’s got left, “What happened to my teeth?  My teeth.  What happened — to my — tee-th.”  Court it within shot of my ears – my ears – again, and the word whispered will be “death.”  Two syllables, you see, not one, but two: “Death.”  But not– not – before “pain.”  Never before “pain.

Transcribing that, I realize how little sense it makes unless you can imagine his delivery ... but the menace is there.  It's just that before tonight I never realized quite how much of a run Pembleton can give Swearengen for his money, and I think I maybe didn't want to.

Comments

[SEK]

And, of course, because it's Homicide, Pembleton doesn't just say "What happened to my teeth?" once: he says it three times, from three different angles, and the last time he turns "teeth" into the same two syllable word "death" is. I'm now so sufficiently creeped out that -- when you account for what's got to be the massive sinus infection invading my brain -- it's a foregone conclusion that I'm never sleeping again for fear of what'll happen to my teeth ... my tee-th ... my teeee-theh.

[Ahistoricality]

Homicide's on CourtTV late? I miss that show so much. Pembleton was one of the greatest TV characters of the 20th century.

Feel better soon!

[SEK]

Homicide's on CourtTV late?

I can't say it's national, but it's definitely a middle-of-the-night staple out here. Maybe that means it's a morning show in the rest of the company [Ed. - I meant country, but really, what's the difference at this point?]? Not sure, but my point is basically this: Pembleton shouldn't be threatening dream-teeth while my sinuses are already about to explode.

[优文网]

Feel better soon!