Here we are, born to be kings

[austin_dern]

I'm sorry for the curt nature of today's entry, but I was at a sibling's much of the day and had an actual car to drive and do chores today. All my previous declarations to my parents that I had tasks to complete -- largely, admittedly, buying things; but it's those things I can't find in Singapore -- didn't register, some sort of cognitive disorder I'd like studied.

Anyway. Miscellaneous things noted. There's a store on US 1 named ``The Scrub Shop,'' selling, they say, ``Discounted Medical Uniforms.'' A discount medical uniform store sounds like the sort of place you build a comedy bit, maybe an entire late 70s sitcom, around. The clothes looked like the stuff Mary and Rhoda might wear, too.

The Woodbridge Center Mall had a lot of stands, outside stores, selling comic books. They also had a carousel; I don't know if this is new, since I don't go there often. The carousel went counterclockwise, as viewed from above, and had three rows of animals, the outer two horses and sleighs, the inner a bit wilder with a dragon, an ostrich, that sort of thing, and a decent crowd of kids enjoying it. There was also an in-mall model train ride, with nobody riding or lined up for a ride or looking interested in a ride, with a sad-looking old woman trapped inside the ticket booth. I felt sorry for her, but felt too awkward to buy a ride.

And at the Monmouth Mall, according to the news radio, a showing of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith abruptly switched to Japanese. I had nothing to do with this.

Trivia: 20-year-old Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student Tyler Hinman this year became the youngest winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Contest. Source: He's Got A Clue! At Rensselaer short article , Rensselaer Alumni Magazine, Spring 2005.

Currently Reading: Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook, Nicholas Thomas.

Comments

[logan-pendan.livejournal.com]

Woot! First comment!

... that is all.

[logan-pendan.livejournal.com]

And I didn't even notice your lyric.

We're the princes of the universe

I am immortal! I have inside me blood of kings!
I have no rivals! No man can be my equal!
Take me to the future of your world!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, sheesh, and I forgot the item I meant to discuss to which that lyric would be an, admittedly vague, allusion. I'm sorry; I do try to avoid having subject lines with absolutely no connection however subtle to my article.

[logan-pendan.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's alright. I'm not any good on posting on comment topics anyway... er... yeah. But in other news, ep III was pretty good.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, all right ... well, I imagine I'll see the movie at some point, anyway.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

First comment? I didn't realize I was becoming that trendy.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

The carousel is most likely a Chance "antique-style" carousel with fiberglass figures. Chance's carousels are populated with figures of the buyer's choice, mostly replicas of antique figures. I'm not sure why they would put all the menagerie figures on the inner row.

Michigan's Adventure amusement park has a Chance carousel populated with quite a lot of menagerie figures that are replicas of famous pieces from various carvers. To the studied eye it looks a bit absurd to have them all on one carousel, especially since there is a noticeable difference in style. The same is no doubt true for the carousel you mention, since ostriches were a Dentzel trademark, and sea dragons were made by Herschell-Spillman. (Actually, Looff also made a sea dragon, but the sea dragon figure on MA's carousel is a Herschell-Spillman replica, so I'm assuming that's the sea dragon mold that Chance always uses.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

They certainly looked fiberglass, although I didn't get close enough to touch or knock on one to be sure -- that took a ticket or leaning way past the little fake-picket fence, you see. The designs for the outer two rings seemed reasonably uniform, though I've got a novice eye. I suppose I'd always just assumed there should be some wild-card strange things mixed into the carousel, based on my theme park experiences of the late 70s and early 80s.

I didn't get the chance to see, or study, the Freehold Raceway Mall carousel, assuming it's back in operation. I didn't get to that mall at all, in fact, to my mild irritation.