AREA 15, in Las Vegas, bills itself as a Wanderland of Art, Music, and Amusement. You are instructed to “leave your expectations at the door…Everything you see, feel and touch is a festival for your imagination.” Before you let your thoughts run away with you, this is not X rated but a place for families. Some of the standard things like virtual golf and virtual reality, zip lines, face painting, hair braiding, with lots of quality food and all types of drinks. My favorite was the illuminarium. You enter the waiting room that is the beginning of the safari, it is full of projected vegetation and animals moving freely around the very large walls of the room. You get instructions on the next step in your safari and move into a cavernous space that is filled with giant film footage of hippos, pelicans, water buffalo, elephants, flamingos and the lion. The picture puts Hank in front of one of the walls the hippo’s swimming behind him. Imagine, a majestic lion viewing all he rules—on his rock perch as a simulated thunder and lightning storm strike his valley, very realistic including the vibration of the floors. I hope you get the picture but it is a revolving IMAX in the round presentation that was impressive and scary, ask Margie.
A friend sent mine sent me a word to consider this week. Paraprosdokian is a sentence or statements with an unexpected ending. It means “against expectations” in Greek. This “surprise ending” is often used for comic effect. A first example took me back to Las Vegas. “What’s the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter.” A bit further down the humorous list, “is it ignorance or apathy that’s destroying the world today? I don’t know and I don’t care.” The use of the technique can be seen through out history. Winston Churchill said, “You can always count on the American’s to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” Perhaps that will be the outcome of the January 6 House committee as they provide indisputable evidence against the former President. The people testifying prove what Benjamin Franklin said, “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
I am guessing the Trump camp of liars and misinformers may agree with Groucho Marx after last night’s public committee meeting—“I have had a perfectly lovely evening, but this wasn’t it.”
I continue to be amazed that people can promote the Big Lie or believe it? Perhaps, Henry David Thoreau explains it, “Every lie is two lies, the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it.” We see this every day as Fox News spreads its propaganda for its own financial reasons. We have heard it from most of the golfers who chose to join the Saudi backed LIV golf. They argue it is for the good of the game when it is really just about the large sums of money they are being paid. I believe the use of the game to improve the image of a group like the Saudi’s is called sportwashing. My experience tells me that if you wrestle with a “turd”, you come out stinking. Thanks to Liz Cheney for taking the high road to protect our democracy. She mentioned last night that turning a blind eye to the Insurrection will return to haunt the Republicans.
Robert Brault said “nothing makes you a decent person like having someone in your life who stubbornly operates under that assumption.” It seems more of us need a friend, mentor, news source, religious or social group to hold us accountable for the greater good.
The final paraprosdokian thoughts. “I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.” And one you have heard, “I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.”
I hope everyone will get engaged in the much needed “gun control” discussion. It is way past time we take steps to protect our children. This is not colonial America, a single shot musket would not have been the weapon of mass shootings.
Mike
Hippo
