Last weekend we found ourselves amongst the Achievers in Louisville for the 8th Lebowski Fest. Among the attractions was the ringer fling, a green Plymouth Fury acting as a stand-in for the Dude's Gran Torino.
In case you've never heard of Lebowski Fest, or God forbid, The Big Lebowski, it's a festival celebrating the movie about about a slacker and the hijinks he gets into after a case of mistaken identity and a soiled rug. Lebowski Fest is attended by all manner of degenerate, dressed up as their favorite character or donning some costume only understandable if you've memorized every word of the script. Drunken nerds, basically, of which we'll include ourselves.
One of the events was pulled from a scene in the movie, in which the character Walter tosses what's supposed to be ransom money from a moving car, instead it's a ringer, a bag of his dirty undies. Ever thus was created the Ringer Fling. A doller bought you the chance to throw a ringer from a very well worn, and super-cool Plymouth Fury acting as a stand-in for the Gran Torino used in the film at on of the "kidnappers," here, an effigy of Richard Nixon for reasons too complex to explain here. All proceeds from the event, along with those from the "Marmot fling" which was odd in its own way, went to benefit children's charities. The Achievers (those in attendance, it's another long story) certainly enjoyed it, and the car made us happy inside.