1556 Arts Talk

I was at this great event recently. It was one of those community events where lots of people are coming and going and lots of stuff is going on and you feel both exhilarated and overwhelmed by all the energy and crosstalk. Keeping track of seven conversations at once as the band plays loudly and people shout in your ears to be heard.
The band was up on stage and they had the crowd dancing. But the music was more hypnotic than rock-and-roll so the dancers were freeform and zoned, not crazy moshpit or anything. They were still bouncing off the walls, but more like a Roomba on roofies.
I was at the sound booth and some child had lost its stuffed toy. I had one of those clairvoyant guesses. Or possibly somewhere I'd picked up the knowledge and forgotten it. In any event, the stuffed animal in question had a mostly white body, blue feet and a blue beak. I said to the lady next to me, "It looks like someone mated the Aflac duck with a Smurf.
She said, "No, it's modeled after a real bird."
"What?" I said, "The blue-footed booby?" thinking I was being a wiseguy.
"That's right," she said. "How did you know?"
I was speechless. But I was also right. I went to the computer, googled it up, and sure enough, there is a blue-footed booby. And it does look like someone mated the Aflac duck with a Smurf.
Now if only my other observation comes true. I told someone else who was going to the county fair to be sure to check out the new thing there. It's like Japanese sand gardening. Making the most of a fair opportunity, someone invented the art of cow manure arranging.
It's called dung shui.
America, ya gotta love it.