Big top Samson, pt II

As promised: Part II of the circus recap.

Just before the intermission, we were treated to a huge food fight by the clowns, prompting the Greek chorus of elephants to once again remark about how wacky humans are. Hilarious.

Then it was lights up and a full-on onslaught of vendors hawking everything from toy swords (!) and elephants to more giant boxes of popcorn. Samson was moved by none of this. He spent most of the 15 minutes looking for Miss Sara, who teaches the "big kids" (translation: she teaches the 4-year-old class). Miss Sara is also pretty, blond, and probably 25 years old. Whether or not this is relevant, I don't know, but he didn't spend even a minute looking for any of the other teachers from his school.

Anyway, during intermission we could see them setting up the tiger cage, so I tried to get Samson ready for the appearance of a bunch of these big cats so they didn't end up in his nightmares for the rest of the weekend. The performance was pretty controlled, with lots of rolling over and playing dead and the like. And here I should note that in situations like these, despite the massive (and communal) potential for PTSD, I always root for the tigers.

I should explain: it's not like I want all these kids age six and under to witness a horrible scene of carnage as one of the tigers finally snaps/finds his dignity and mauls the bejesus out of the trainer. To the strains of Bow Wow Wow, no less. But I equally don't want all these kids (especially mine) to witness a massive food fight and have to re-explain on the way home that we don't throw food in our house. There's no danger of us either training or being eaten by a large cat at home.

The final trick of the act involved the biggest tiger on a platform atop a rotating disco ball with one paw in the air. Which made me just plain sad. I'm not a big fan of animal tricks to begin with --- the majesty of two poodles on a motorcycle, pace Ringling Bros., continues to elude me. And it just made Samson wonder: "Where'd Miss Sara go?" (she was two rows behind us, but I think at that point she was getting a pretzel).

Anyway, the tiger act concluded with nothing worthy of a bad Fox special and the show resumed. Neat horse riding tricks by some Cossacks. I'm not kidding. Didn't these guys used to strike fear in the heart of the people of the steppes? I bet they totally sympathize with the tigers.

And then came the finale with that crazy steel orb with all the motorcycles in it. Set to an instrumental version of Ozzy's "Crazy Train." How they fit all those guys on motorcycles in there is beyond me, but it was well worth the price of admission. And I wasn't even rooting against them.

So all in all a pretty fun time. And let's be honest, I'd take a trip to the circus with Samson over a day at the office any day. It's not even close.