Scenes From Coney Island, part III of V

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Note – Doktor Howl is unable to finish this series, because he had a tragic accident involving 2 gallons of glycerin and a deep freeze.  That being the case, I have been saddled with cleaning up his mess.  Again.  That miserable, lazy bastard.  I hate him with the fire of ten thousand suns.
- TGRR

The very worst thing about Coney Island is that it – like Tucson – reflects all of America, because it is a funhouse mirror reflecting all of our foibles and petty bullshit back in a way that we can't ignore.  Who went to go see elephants pushed down slides?  We did.  Who went to watch lions get tormented in public?  Oh, yeah, America did.  You get my drift.

Funhouse mirrors are interesting, because they sometimes show you more Truth than you're really interested in seeing.  The first mirror shows you as a fresh-faced 8 year old, excited at the world.  The second shows you at 16, with a huge head and a skinny body.  The next one shows you in military gear, with a gaping look of horror on your face.  Then there's the one that makes you look old...A bit thicker around the middle, more grey hair than you're comfortable with, etc.  You KNOW you're still that 8 year old kid, but hoo boy, does that mirror make you look like a horse broken down in the harness.

And you can never forget what you see in those mirrors...You can never really leave the funhouse.  Everything around you looks distorted; it's all a caricature of itself.  The fat bastards that run the country really ARE fat, chinless & neck-less, jowls quivering with greed & glee.  The religious nuts really ARE all perverts, each of them in turn being caught with fat little boys in places like Costa Rica or Los Angeles.  Then they get on TV and sob about how they let everyone down, but they'll change, oh yes, they'll change.  And overbite yahoos nationwide make grunting noises and send them cheques. 

I ask you:  Does this look like a rational world to you?  Does this look like 10,000 years of progress?  Or maybe we're just all stuck in some horrible funhouse somewhere, lost in an endless maze of nightmares, while the real world - the sane world - moves along, occasionally wondering what happened to us?

Or maybe – and this is the part that gets me thinking – maybe  the whole country is stuck in that funhouse, and we're just seeing reflections from the entrance, and hearing sounds of horror whispering out of endless glass hallways.  Maybe the whole world's been stuck in there since Gavril Princip opened the funhouse door and ordered a few million dumpsters to haul off the mangled results, out back.

And maybe the world's talked itself into believing that the funhouse is the only Right & Proper place to be, because they're rather taken with the distorted and menacing appearance of Jesus and Mohammed and George Washington and Patrick Henry and all the other Gods they've chosen for themselves.

If that is the case, then the world needs a good, old-fashioned Coney Island fire.

Just sayin'.

Or Kill Me

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We're near the end, Roger. You know it and I know it and that old bastard Doktor Howl knew it. I don't know what that means for humanity, maybe we're still evolving and there will be something good in the future for us yet.

I wouldn't bank on it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We're near the end, Roger. You know it and I know it and that old bastard Doktor Howl knew it. I don't know what that means for humanity, maybe we're still evolving and there will be something good in the future for us yet.

I wouldn't bank on it.

I think you're being hopelessly optimistic.  History has shown what happens to all republics in the end, and...Well, let's just say the future isn't done with you, yet.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We're near the end, Roger. You know it and I know it and that old bastard Doktor Howl knew it. I don't know what that means for humanity, maybe we're still evolving and there will be something good in the future for us yet.

I wouldn't bank on it.

I think you're being hopelessly optimistic.  History has shown what happens to all republics in the end, and...Well, let's just say the future isn't done with you, yet.

That's it. I'm moving to Africa.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We're near the end, Roger. You know it and I know it and that old bastard Doktor Howl knew it. I don't know what that means for humanity, maybe we're still evolving and there will be something good in the future for us yet.

I wouldn't bank on it.

I think you're being hopelessly optimistic.  History has shown what happens to all republics in the end, and...Well, let's just say the future isn't done with you, yet.

That's it. I'm moving to Africa.

Mind the child soldiers, then.  They're a caution.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Oh I firmly believe we've been stuck in here for decades.  On the occasion someone will escape. Curly did, so did Hank Sr.  I think you've probably gotten out quite a few times yourself Roger.  I have to ask, are they crazier out there than they are in here?  Or is it the paradise we've all dreamt it to be?

One can hope that cleansing with fire will clean out all the cobwebs and get us back on track, only problem is I think the fight will be what type of fire.  You've got your group on the right saying purge it with holy fire and you've got the group on the left saying burn it all to the ground.

Problem is, those of us stuck in the middle are the ones who will have to rebuild whichever side wins.  My desire is almost always a happy medium.  Thing is, there is no middle ground anymore.  Trying to get either side to see the reason of compromise is a lost cause today.  

Personally, I have no issues with rebuilding as long as I get to help burn it to the ground first.  If you're going to start fresh, you have to do it right yanno?

I really like this series!!!  

[trippinprincezz13]

While I rarely feel informed or insightful enough to comment on things here (excuses, I know), just want to chime in to say that I've been enjoying this series and am looking forward to the next two installments and everything tying together

Thank you  

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Oh I firmly believe we've been stuck in here for decades.  On the occasion someone will escape. Curly did, so did Hank Sr.  I think you've probably gotten out quite a few times yourself Roger.  I have to ask, are they crazier out there than they are in here?  Or is it the paradise we've all dreamt it to be?

One can hope that cleansing with fire will clean out all the cobwebs and get us back on track, only problem is I think the fight will be what type of fire.  You've got your group on the right saying purge it with holy fire and you've got the group on the left saying burn it all to the ground.

Problem is, those of us stuck in the middle are the ones who will have to rebuild whichever side wins.  My desire is almost always a happy medium.  Thing is, there is no middle ground anymore.  Trying to get either side to see the reason of compromise is a lost cause today.  

Personally, I have no issues with rebuilding as long as I get to help burn it to the ground first.  If you're going to start fresh, you have to do it right yanno?

I really like this series!!!  

There is no "back on track".  We are on the track.  This is the established behavior of monkeys at this point of civilization.  Greece, Rome, France, Argentina...This is perfectly normal.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

While I rarely feel informed or insightful enough to comment on things here (excuses, I know), just want to chime in to say that I've been enjoying this series and am looking forward to the next two installments and everything tying together

Thank you  

Thank you.  I am, as it happens, inordinately pleased with what I have planned for the finale.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We're near the end, Roger. You know it and I know it and that old bastard Doktor Howl knew it. I don't know what that means for humanity, maybe we're still evolving and there will be something good in the future for us yet.

I wouldn't bank on it.

I think you're being hopelessly optimistic.  History has shown what happens to all republics in the end, and...Well, let's just say the future isn't done with you, yet.

That's it. I'm moving to Africa.

Mind the child soldiers, then.  They're a caution.

I figure if I go someplace where things can't possibly get much worse, I won't have to watch it go downhill.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

We're near the end, Roger. You know it and I know it and that old bastard Doktor Howl knew it. I don't know what that means for humanity, maybe we're still evolving and there will be something good in the future for us yet.

I wouldn't bank on it.

I think you're being hopelessly optimistic.  History has shown what happens to all republics in the end, and...Well, let's just say the future isn't done with you, yet.

That's it. I'm moving to Africa.

Mind the child soldiers, then.  They're a caution.

I figure if I go someplace where things can't possibly get much worse, I won't have to watch it go downhill.

Peruvian jungle.  Sure, they shrink peoples' heads, but we all have our little quirks.

You'd be their queen, Nigel, like something out of a Robert Howard novel.  And when brawny barbarians or bespectacled explorers find you, you can do that thing you do to Portland hippies and then later, hang their tiny dessicated heads from your Christmas tree.

Sure, it's awful, but at least they won't text you every ten minutes.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We're near the end, Roger. You know it and I know it and that old bastard Doktor Howl knew it. I don't know what that means for humanity, maybe we're still evolving and there will be something good in the future for us yet.

I wouldn't bank on it.

I think you're being hopelessly optimistic.  History has shown what happens to all republics in the end, and...Well, let's just say the future isn't done with you, yet.

That's it. I'm moving to Africa.

Mind the child soldiers, then.  They're a caution.

I figure if I go someplace where things can't possibly get much worse, I won't have to watch it go downhill.

Peruvian jungle.  Sure, they shrink peoples' heads, but we all have our little quirks.

You'd be their queen, Nigel, like something out of a Robert Howard novel.  And when brawny barbarians or bespectacled explorers find you, you can do that thing you do to Portland hippies and then later, hang their tiny dessicated heads from your Christmas tree.

Sure, it's awful, but at least they won't text you every ten minutes.

I like this plan.