muttersnifflegrump (delerious ramblings cut to protect the uninterested)

[runthebear]

So that feeling of being slightly off I've had for the last two weeks? Turns out it was a lovely flu-like bug I was apparently holding off through sheer willpower and denial. I guess I no longer had any reason to keep myself from getting sick so it struck. Perfect timing. I was supposed to be at the county fair with my family this evening.

Comments

[niphredil]

Regarding the Ferris wheel thing, I actually watched a documentary on PBS all about that (well, mostly). The guy who invented the ferris wheel had like, five names, and one of them was Ferris (Something something something Ferris something). He was some kind of engineer and he came up with the idea and plans for a ferris wheel in about 20 minutes (complete with a detailed drawing). It cost 400,000 dollars to build. Some guy named... something... who was running the Worlds Fair in Chicago wanted to Out-Eiffel-Eiffel, because of the Eiffel Tower at the last Worlds Fair. The Ferris wheel was perfect, it debuted 7 weeks after the fair opened, it was a huge hit, it was declared more awesome than the eiffel tower (not quite in those words) and it raised a ton of money.
By the way, that first ferris wheel in Chicago was about as high as forty schoolbuses stacked on top of each other. Each compartment for people to sit in was about the size of a trolley car and held SIXTY PEOPLE! In fact, on the first go-round, they had an entire orchestra in one of the compartments playing "My Country Tis of Thee" and other songs. Whaddya think about that?
Eventually, Ferris was really stupid and tried to move the wheel to the suburbs [insert dramatic roll of the eyes here]. He went broke, his wife left him, the wheel was sold for a whopping $1,800 (not that much). It went to the St. Louis fair and made some money, but after the fair it was dismantled. Some say that the steel used to make it was recycled and made into other projects [insert suspicious looking photo of a bridge with a sharp upward arch and horizontal beams connecting the two sides]. Even though Ferris died an unhappy and poor man at the age of... 37? his legacy lives on in the form of the Ferris Wheel, which is still enjoyed by millions today all over the world. When Chicago was building navy pier and they were figuring out what the main attraction should be, the ferris wheel was an easy answer, with some nice history to go along with it.

I should note that I only read the first paragraph of your entry before I wrote all that (points up). That is what happens when you watch half an hour of a PBS special on something I don't even know the title of. And I'm an exceptional auditory learner, when I choose to be. Sometimes.
Enjoy :-)
Oh, and have fun in Japan. ^-^ Make sure you visit Kamakura and the Buddha and take a picture of the really cool house/garden thing behind the Buddha (and check out the gift shops--lots of buddha merchandise!) Oh, and in Kamakura, read the warning signs next to the dirty beaches, they're hilarious.
Yeah, so have fun!

[niphredil]

btw I just looked it up and the guy's name was George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., but I think PBS listed another name in there after ferris. I hope my comment didn't make your head hurt any more ;-)