Robot Claw – Page 53 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Ten Things We Saw At The Fair

July 28, 2024

Kristin, Dohoon and I went to the Saratoga County Fair the other day. Here’s some of what we saw.

Shortly arriving we watched a ‘wild west’ show which featured lots of trick shooting and knife throwing and crazed whipping! The above was taken during a routine where he set two whips on fire and cracked them so sparks flew everywhere and it looked like fireworks. Later we watched an extremely talented ‘comedy juggler’ that (briefly) juggled six items. Yesterday I tried three myself, with questionable success 😉

That’s a rabbit! Of course there were lots of animals on display, and we had a look at them all.

Kristin got a ‘roll ice cream’ which is made from a liquid state by freezing it on a flat plate and then rolling it up. The young guy who made it was very fast, and it was incredibly delicious! We saw places selling this in Japan and didn’t try it; I’m sure we will next time.

The legality of the real money coin pushers seems questionable, but this hardly stopped me from putting $2.50 in quarters into this one since I wanted to win that $50 hanging over the edge. I reject outrageous claims it’s probably superglued down! (I won nothing.)

A master chainsaw artisan was doing demonstrations and his creations truly were impressive. He had about ten chainsaws and other tools, and all of the statues began from an approximate four foot tall piece of wood. He paints them himself, and all of them are auctioned at the end of the fair.

This horse was getting new shoes, and it was a bit icky watching the guy hammer the nails in and trim the hooves. I learned horses get new shows about every six weeks, the process is painless for the horse, and the shoes can be reused after the hoof is trimmed and the pad replaced.

A dramatic painting of a dragon either breathing fire or vomiting blood down onto a house! This was done by a teenager, and as you can see was selected for the upcoming New York State fair! I like the minimalist choice of colour. Maybe I’ll rip this off for one of my future creations…

Fries made by cutting potatoes super thin and frying them. This is essentially potato chips cooked in front of you, and was delicious (and I’m sure extremely healthy). Fair food is outrageously pricey now, so it’s good it’s also tasty!

There was a traveling kangaroo petting zoo! It was $10 so only I went in but the owner refused my money when he learned I was Australian (I paid him anyway). Above I’m holding a 7-month old Joey who occasionally opened her eyes to look at me. She was above as heavy as a young cat, and incredibly cute. They also had five eastern greys, two wallabies and a red, and I patted and said hello to every single one! This was my highlight of the fair 🙂

And, of course, I loved the rides. I didn’t go on any, and regretted it afterwards. Next year I will!

I didn’t take any photos but Dohoon and I also competed at shooting air rifles. In fact we did it twice to remove the question of one gun being better than the other. The result: a tie (both of us hit the center of the target). But we also did some archery and it turns out he was extremely good, hitting close to the center with every arrow compared to my 50% rate of even hitting the target. The green pennant I wear in the kangaroo pic was given to use after the archery 🙂

I believe this is the only fair we’ll be able to go to this year, and after a year in which we went to none it was a lot of fun.

New York, New York

July 25, 2024

Stickers are the new graffiti, and they cover every postbox and lamp post and whatever the thing in the above pic is. They also seem to change every time I’m here. Do they get removed? Do they just fall off due to weather? And who’s applying them and when?

Almost every street corner in Manhattan has one or more food trucks or carts. Down near Times Square the proliferation of these is incredible: I counted nine in total at one intersection. I buy drinks from them sometimes, but in all the years have never bought any food aside from the sugared nuts.

I sent loads of postcards this trip, since I had been ‘saving up’ Postcrossing cards. I think over 40 went into mailboxes during the past three days. I also bought over 100, many of which cost only $0.10 each!

The above statue had a matching friend on the other side. It’s a clever illusion, but I thought the pallet he was standing on was best since it’s also painted metal (I think).

Times Square is full of people – usually middle aged Hispanic women – dressed as Disney/Marvel/Minions characters who will pose for photos with you for a price. Yesterday on the subway I saw a lady in a Pac Man ghost outfit, with the head off, no doubt heading to work 🙂

I had fun these few days in the city. I already look forward to the next visit at Kristin’s birthday.

The Misty Mountain

July 24, 2024

New York has five ‘observation platforms’ and in the last two years I’d visited four of them. It was time for the last one.

I took the subway downtown which – despite my many visits to the city – was a new experience. It was full of tourists, and many of them disembarked at the same stop I did.

The above photo was taken overlooking the memorial for the south tower of the old World Trade Center. You can see the names of the departed, one of which had a white rose placed in it. Water eternally falls down into a pit that was once the basement of the tower. It’s a moving memorial, and it was impossible not to think back to the events of that day almost 23 years ago.

Overlooking the memorial is a very tall tower – One World Trade Center – and today its peak was lost in the clouds. I had a reservation for the observatory on the 102nd floor!

They told me the visibility was ‘zero’ and I could come back another day within the week. Since I didn’t have that option I chose to go up anyway. There was no one else in line and I had the elevator and the introductory movie all to myself, and once I reached the 102nd floor the above was all that could be seen out the windows.

And yes, visibility was essentially nonexistent. At times the clouds temporarily blew away under the observatory level and you could see directly down, but distance vision was completely obscured. It’s worth noting also that the view was worse than the above pic, which was taken with the camera at ground level right up against the glass.

There was only about half a dozen visitors up there; fools like myself who enjoyed wasting their money! Obviously I can’t compare One World Observatory to the other four since I didn’t actually see anything. Maybe I’ll go back one day since now I’m even more curious.

Afterwards I took the subway uptown for a bit more shopping and exploring. Right next to the Flatiron building I found this:

It’s a ‘portal’ to Ireland. See those people on the screen? They’re looking at a similar device in Dublin where they saw us watching them. It’s in real-time, and a lovely way to connect people on (somewhat) opposite sides of the globe. Wouldn’t it be fun to arrange with a friend to see each other through such a portal?

After lunch the day was still young and although I still had some shopping to do I returned to another place I like to visit: the United Nations.

Once again I visited the UN stamp shop and sent some postcards. Actually I sent quite a few, including some postcrossing ones. Watch your mailboxes for exotically-stamped cards and be sure to tell me how wonderful I am when they arrive 😉

I did some more shopping, went and had a gander at Times Square, and ate some more delicious things. It was been another long, hot and humid day, and I know I’ll sleep well tonight!