March 12, 2010
Straw-Whackin’
Date: January 1999
Location: Palisades Mall, NY
Description: Few pictures can truly capture the essence of an emotion. How many times have you had to explain, “Well, it much [adjective]r when you were there in person?” Well, on Susan’s 21st birthday, we headed out to the Rainforest Café to allow her to order big girl drinks. Because of the large number of people invited, me, Scott and Chris (pictured) were at the other end, hardly able to see the birthday girl. So we had to do something to entertain ourselves. One of us, I forget who, found if you put a straw in a cup and ‘flicked’ a knife at it (by holding it above the straw, pending it upwards, and letting it snap down), the straw would fly out of the cup. And this was the greatest thing we’ve ever discovered. Similarly, we found that adding more straws simply added more smiles. I laughed and smiled so hard that the back of my head hurt until we left. Adding even more comedy was Mark (not pictured), who was getting so upset at our enjoyment of our new game, who started hoarding all our straws. Chris managed to wrangle more for this picture, an action shot of the straw-whackin’ experience. Notice the near euphoria he is experiencing. That is what it’s like.