On 01/09/99 02:55 the inimitable Tim Rhodes made this comment ‹
>"WARNING: RIDERS ARE SUBJECTED TO EXTEREME
>G-FORCES. PREGNANT WOMEN AND THOSE WITH HEART OR CONDITIONS MAY NOT BOARD!
>RIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK!" ? Talk about memetic engineering!
Carnival rides and attractions have always (so does anal sex...) invited the dare, the come-on, the 'this is way too dangerous for _you_, wimpy-puss' titillation. Part of the gig. Some things are just _too_ risky for the normal folk.
Then again, nowadays, there are lawyers hiding in the bushes....
Many people, early in the Disney empire, remarked on the _lack_ of carny-type attractions at DisneyLand. Disney, in fact, made every attempt to avoid the P. T. Barnum type of sensationalism that was the mark of almost all traveling carnivals, and quite a few of the amusement parks, then and now. Walt is gone, but, I tend to think those warnings, as much as they harken back to the traveling show, are more there for the snakes in the bushes....
Wade T. Smith
morbius@channel1.com | "There ain't nothin' you
wade_smith@harvard.edu | shouldn't do to a god."