A very long time ago, a young man watched a TV movie, of questionable production and writing quality, that had a title something like Swords and (Sorcerers|Sorcery). I don't recall much of the story, but one scene is burned into my mind:
A hero (maybe the heroes) enter a tavern. Belly up to the bar and order a libation. It is delivered in mugs, made of skulls. Do I recall smoke cascading over the rim?
Fast forward to my years in college and an incident that still makes me sad, a little bit. My parent’s had given me a skull mug from The Pirates House restaurant in Savannah, GA. The mug, as I recall, was a gift, but not for any memory of a B-Made-for-Television movie. Gray, with a “bone” handle, the mug was evocative of pirate lure. I loved that mug. Then my roommate, rushing to get to class, knocked it to the floor. Destroyed.
I have seen many mugs like this very one on eBay, or at other stores. Most white, or ivory, but none gray like the souvenir from my parents, and never any like the prop from the movie.
Until today.
Completely by accident, as I wanted to find an image of a skull for a blog post about locating a mug as my mind’s envisioned and remembered it from my youth, I typed “skull” into Google, then selected “Images.” As Providence would have it, this gem appeared on the first page.
Damn! This is exactly what I wanted. I wanted a skull mug that would be reminiscent of the movie prop, something sans-jawbone, that rested on the brain pan and upper jaw. Something macabre. Something that would let me drink coffee from, well, a brain pan.
I don’t have to tell you how excited I am about this mug.
Order one yourself from Tiki Farm.
Bonus points for anyone that can tell me what the name of that B-Made-for-TV movie was... I completed college in ’91, 1988 was the year I entered that university. So this movie must have aired in the early 80s, say 1980–1984.
meta-footnote-1=
grep expression for “one or the other”
meta-footnote-2=The Pirates House no longer has this mug as a souvenir. The original mug was gray, with appropriate highlights and a black wash, deep black eye sockets, and a white interior. The Pirates House was prominently stamped on the back of the skull.
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