To what is this world coming?

[essentialsaltes]

Like all aging misanthropes, I despair for the younger generations. Case in point: the pull-string piñata. Seriously, what could be healthier than attacking Darth Vader's head with a stick (lightsaber)? (unless you're Luke)

But I am informed that some killjoys think it unhealthy:

A blindfolded child is let up to some poor helpless papier-mâché animal hanging off a tree by a string. They have a stick or a bat in their hand, and they proceed to whack the animal with all their might. Other children are cheering on the fight. When the piñata is broken open, candy spills out. Everyone rushes to grab as much candy as they can. It's every kid for them self.
Doesn't sound like such a good party game when it's put like that, huh?

Are you on crack? Of course it sounds like a good party game.

There are now pull-string piñatas...which get rid of the hitting element. ... Fill it with healthy snacks or toys. Have a set number of toys or snacks inside and tell the children before hand how many of each thing they can each pick out. Or have a set number of the same kind of thing for each child, and have the birthday child pass out the toys/snacks to each of the other children.

She doesn't even bother to hide her socialist agenda.

Pin the tail on the donkey isn't safe, either. I mean safe from killjoys.

But if that's the way we're headed, I promise no piñata at the next (i.e. first) kids' party I throw(*). Instead we'll have Jarts.

(*)This is probably a lie, since Dr. Pookie feels convicted that the Nephew of Doom now absolutely deserves a piñata.

Comments

[rowdy-phantom.livejournal.com]

During my first stay in Japan 15 years ago, I discovered these wonderful places called "Athletics". They were long obstacle courses that included tarzaning across ponds, ziplining down hillsides, clambering up three-story rope ladder jungle gyms. They cost about $2 and were ostensibly for children.

I would have loved these places when I was a kid, just as much as I adored them as an adult (in direct proportion to fearing for my life). The whole time I marveled over how great a park could be when you're not in the land of the lawsuit.

Darn it all, you can't go home again. The athletic parks theses days have been tamed, not quite to the level of drawstring pinatas.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Alas!

[jsadler.livejournal.com]

Make your own pinata out of real paper mache (I don't know how to spell that right). Part of the problem is that they went to cardboard structures which literally have to be beaten to death to knock open. Used to be they'd open up with one or two good blows, now it takes the adults 5 min. of beating on it with a lead pipe to break the darn things open.

Not that I approve of the pull string ones; if you're gonna pinata then do it right, damn it!

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I fondly remember making a piñata in elementary school. Papier-mâché was beyond us, but construction paper, glue and tape was well within our capabilities, and they certainly weren't too tough to crack open.

[dustchick.livejournal.com]

I have a student from France in my physics lab this semester. After giving them some safety precautions before an experiment, he said, "But if I get hurt, I can sue, right? This is America, where everybody sues." He was joking, but I thought it was interesting to get that perspective on our behaviors.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

Very true. Virtually any archeological site in Europe that you visit is a potential death trap, and at most you'll see a sign or two as in my icon. In America, there would be railings galore to A) protect you from injury, and B) protect 'them' from litigation.

[therrin.livejournal.com]

There is this park in Saint Annes (lets call it Blackpool for convenience) that my grandmother is grimly determined to take us to whenever we are there. The first time I was there, I was just in awe of the jungle gym. It was this huge rope hemisphere. It looked like so much fun for a little kid and an absolute death trap by American standards. No way that thing would have passed whatever "can we be sued/safety" checks that go on in Ca.