The Aykroyd Family Business

Everyone knows that Dan Aykroyd wrote and starred in Ghostbusters, but many people might not realize that the Aykroyd family has had some real-life experience with the paranormal.  Samuel Aykroyd, Dan's great-grandfather, regularly held seances in his home and was fascinated with ectoplasm; his grandson Peter (Dan's father) would watch from the doorway as a young boy and ended up writing a book called A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Seances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters (which I'm requesting from the library right now, of course). For more info, check out this article:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/82942/real-ghost-hunting-history-aykroyds

Ghostbusters: The Best Quotes

In tribute to Harold Ramis, I decided to watch Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 this week.  It's been a few years since I've seen them, so I thought it would be fun to do a blog post with my favorite quotes from the movies.

Ghostbusters

-“Back off, man…I’m a scientist.”-Peter Venkman

-Ray Stantz:  Symmetrical book-stacking, just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947.

 Peter Venkman:  You’re right.  No human being would stack books like this.

-“You’re not gonna lose the house.  Everyone has three mortgages nowadays.”-Peter Venkman

-Janine Melnitz:  Do you have any hobbies?

 Egon Spengler:  I collect spores, molds, and fungus.

-Dana Barrett:  Well, of course I’m telling the truth.  Who would make up a story like that?

 Peter Venkman:  Some are people who just want attention.  Others are just nutballs who come in off the  street.

-Dana Barrett:  You know, you don’t act like a scientist.

 Peter Venkman:  They’re usually pretty stiff.

 Dana Barrett:  You’re more like a game show host.

-“He slimed me.”-Peter Venkman

-Egon Spengler.:  There’s something very important I forgot to tell you…don’t cross the streams.

 Peter Venkman:  Why?

 Egon Spengler:  It would be bad.

 Peter Venkman:  I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing.  What do you mean, “bad”?

 Egon Spengler:  Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your  body exploding at the speed of light.

-“If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.”-Winston Zeddemore

-“I don’t have to take this abuse from you.  I got hundreds of people dying to abuse me.”-Peter Venkman

-“She’s not my girlfriend.  I find her interesting because she’s a client and because she sleeps above her    covers.  Four feet above her covers.”-Peter Venkman

-“Ray, when someone asks you if you’re a god, you say yes!”-Winston Zeddemore

-“This chick is toast!”-Peter Venkman

-“Let’s show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown.”-Peter Venkman

-“Nobody steps on a church in my town!”-Peter Venkman

-“We’ve been going about this all wrong…we get this guy laid, we won’t have any trouble.”-Peter Venkman

Ghostbusters 2

-Prosecutor:  Dr. Venkman, would you please tell the court why it is that you and your co-defendants took it  upon yourselves to dig a very big hole in the middle of First Avenue?

 Peter Venkman:  Well, there’s so many holes in First Avenue, we really didn’t think anyone would notice.

-Louis Tully:  My guys are still under a judicial “mis-strangement” order, that blue thing I got from her.  They  could be exposing themselves.

 Peter Venkman:  And you don’t want us exposing ourselves.

-“We’re the best!  We’re the beautiful!  We’re the only…Ghostbusters!”-Peter Venkman

-Peter Venkman:  Dana’s just come over to my place.  Well, actually her-her tub tried to eat her.

 Ray Stantz:  Are you serious?  Oh, that’s great!

-Dana Barrett:  It’s so late, I really ought to put him down.

 Peter Venkman:  May I?

 Dana Barrett:  Yeah, if you want to.

 Peter Venkman:  You’re short, your belly button sticks out too far, and you’re a terrible burden on your  poor mother.

-Dana Barrett:  So what happened with my apartment?

 Peter Venkman:  Well, the guys spent the whole night there. They went through all your things, your  personal stuff.  They tried on some of your clothes, made some long-distance phone calls, cleaned out the  fridge…

-Janine Melnitz:  You’re very good with children.

 Louis Tully:  Thanks, I practiced on my hamster.

-“I used to have a roommate, but my mom moved to Florida.”-Louis Tully

-“If we don’t do something fast, this whole place is gonna blow like a frog on a hot plate.”-Ray Stantz

-Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker’s God-given right.”-The Mayor of  New York