Friday, June 15, 2012

As I write this post, a crazy man is preparing to walk across a wire over Niagara Falls. It is still a half hour away - ABC is still shilling the audience showing how hard it is - so I still don't yet know if he will be dead in an hour or so. His great-great grandfather Karl Wallenda died in Puerto Rico on the high wire at age 73, many years ago. There is a huge crowd gathered at the falls and apparently no one had figured out how to make them pay. They have all come to see the man die, of course, as will I when I go back to the TV. I don't know what it is about watching crazy men die that is such an attraction.

I'll go watch the spectacle now, and you can find out if he made it or not in your morning newspaper.

P.S. - He's doing it at night. Obviously. That would be a first.


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7 comments:

  1. red dirt girlJune 16, 2012 at 12:03 AM

    ummm .... let me know if he falls down on the job or, errrr ..... if he becomes the fall guy? or would that be falls as in humongous falls ?? I better stop while I'm ahead...

    xxx

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    Replies
    1. Relax MaxJune 18, 2012 at 10:39 PM

      I am sure you have heard by now that he fell to his death.

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    2. red dirt girlJune 19, 2012 at 12:24 AM

      Hahahaha.... actually I heard that he was tethered to the cable with a harness ...... just in case he slipped.

      xxx

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    3. Relax MaxJune 19, 2012 at 1:03 PM

      He did have a thing dragging behind him. Some announcer from a different TV network said ABC had insisted on it or they wouldn't televise it, and threatened if he tried to remove it mid-walk, they would take the cameras off him for the rest of his walk. Rumor has it he was not pleased because he thought it detracted from his feat. But I don't think he would have fallen anyway, he was walking very steadily throughout and never once slipped or swayed or seemed to lose his balance. He did not stop in the middle to make a cell phone call to his wife as he usually does on his tricks. He did kneel on the wire towards the end and pump his fist at the crowd. His microphone was on continueally and he simply prayed throughout his walk, sometimes under his breath, sometimes quite loudly. Not for God to keep him safe, oddly, but just joyful praise, thanking Jesus and God (and perhaps Buddha) for allowing him the opportunity to finally do this thing. And he talked to his father in the control booth, who kept asking how he felt and if he was tired. The walker seemed annoyed at these questions after a time. "No, Dad." Of course ABC announcer got on and asked him how the mist felt in his face. How do you answer such questions? "Ummm.... wet, I guess."

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    4. Relax MaxJune 19, 2012 at 1:11 PM

      Oh, and when it was over, the Canadian border guys asked to see his passport, which he dug out of his pocked, wrapped in a plastic bag, and they stamped it. And they asked him if he was bringing anything in to Canada. "Not really."

      Hahahahahah - at first when they asked him for his passport, he pretended he had forgotten it and turned as if to go back up to the wire and go back and get it. A sense of humor. You shouldda watched it.

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  2. AdullamiteJune 16, 2012 at 2:18 AM

    Sadly he was kept waiting by the TV for ten minutes while cramp set in! TV folk really care nothing about people. However as Blondini done this, slightly further up stream, many years ago I fail to see the point. Sure it is dangerous, sure it would be exciting to do, sure it is boring. Unless he falls of course, then at least we get a laugh and cry "Told you!" Walk over a rope? I find walking in a straight line hard enough.

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