There are practical, useful inventions - and then there are inventions calibrated solely to sweep you up in the process of how they work. The individual who came up with this precisely timed set piece seemed to care little about the invention's ultimate goal (a clue: there are easier, less time consuming ways to accomplish the invention's final act) and more about its ability to carry it out. The inventor keeps you in suspense, waiting for one false step to trip it up. The dime doesn't drop, but your jaw might.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1yv0ETlEls
TO READERS: Part of the fascination in doing daily blogs is working quickly to get my thoughts on the page. In the process, of course, mistakes get made due to working so quickly. I found some typos and gramatical errors in some earlier copy and have gone back to clean the mess. Sorry for that mess. (If some of you care to go back you'll find the copy - hopefully - a little cleaner.) Most of my friends are much more gifted as writers than me, but if I chisel away I can generally make myself pretty clear. But if anything stands out, don't hesitate to let me know. I'm going to try and exercise the same editorial copy-editing I do when I'm preparing a professional piece for publication.
By the way, I'm happy to see more comments appearing. Thank you. Please join in if you haven't already.
That's what makes this particular web-log more intriguing, the fact that it's treated as a professional column. Syd, Hans Castorp and I all appreciate that fact.
ReplyDeleteHello, my name is Hans, Hans Castorp, and I am residing temporarily in a spa....sort of a rest home, in Switzerland, in order to...rest. I am here writing on my laptop in the alptops, wrapped in my warm felt blankets on the circular balcony with my two frosted friends and fellow residents here, Harry Haller and Ulrich, whose surname I have never known. I often read with curiousity your entries as you careen across the pop culture landscape...yes, with interest and amusement, and sometimes I even read aloud to Haller and Ulrich. We all find the range of topics oddly bracing, diverting and somewhat,therapeutic...for reasons that are not immediately known to me.
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