While waiting for UPS to update their site with the latest tracking information, I noticed Comedy Central was airing the movie Rolling Kansas.
During my service industry days, I ran the local Albertsons' video rental department. It was easy gig and we'd usually get some pretty good freebies. Typically, the operation would work as follows: Our distributor (B&M) would arrive monday morning to do an inventory. Our representative would clear up everything in our system (late fees, lost movies, etc.). She would then give us our C titles for the upcoming week.
The arrival of new releases would come in two shipments. The major releases would arrive Wednesday morning and it was my duty to have them on the shelf by next Tuesday. Our C-list titles were always hand delivered by the B&M representative on Monday.
Returning to the story, the representative gives us the upcoming release list to post on the wall for customers. Rolling Kansas is among the list. Its scheduled date arrives, but the movie does not. Not unheard of since these are often not the movies you're dying to watch. A couple of weeks later, the representative arrives with Rolling Kansas in hand. She then hands me a memo from the Albertsons' HQ in Boise. It reads as follows:
"Due to the numerous drug references and explicit movie cover, Rolling Kansas will not be available for rent. We promote a family atmosphere and feel this does not live up to our standard. Please pull all copies and return them to your video representative"
That is right. Albertsons' HQ has a problem with a smiling water tower smoking a doobie.
A couple of weeks passes then a customer decides to ask me about the entire list of releases. I never watched much of the C-list movies, but I could generally pull one fact out of my ass about them. He gets to Rolling Kansas and I explain that it was pulled because it did not meet our standards for family viewing.
His eyes light up (pun not so much intended). He then shakes my hand and tells me how wonderful Albertsons is as a company for protecting our youth. At this point, I didn't have the heart to tell him that not too many kids were going to be influenced by a smoking water tower.
A couple of weeks goes by and I'm heading home for the day. I check in on my employees to overhear a familar conversation. It was the same customer giving an identical speech to my afternoon clerk. It was word for word the same thing he told me.