I was reading "An NYU admission application" in MaxQ's Humouresque page, and came across the line: " I
enjoy urban hang gliding." It reminded me that there was an item in the news last night about a power-parachute enthusiast colliding with the Statue of Liberty, but being able to climb to safety, leaving his flying machine draped over the torch holding arm.
So let's hear some opinions, should the perpetrator get a citation, or a medal?
Sombody is going to have to pay for the cost of getting what's left of the machine down off the torch.That could run into money, as the monkey said when he pissed into the cash register.
How about a little game of thinking up the charges that could be brought against him.
How about "Defacing a public monument" ?
"Flying in the face of nurture"
Irreverence of the champion of liberty.
[apologies to Mark Twain]
Does anyone remember Pierre's last name? In the 1970s, he walked into the arms of the police--across a tightrope stretched between the towers of the World Trade Center. He was sentenced to perform for children, for free, in city parks.
In comparison this was a pig's stunt. They should lock him up for thirty days, make him cover the cost of rescue and cleanup and take away his visa.
Operating to endanger (the tourists)
I found a power parachute site, and some of the regulations which they must obey. Also some pretty pictures of them in flight. I have seen the "daring young men in their flying machines" just above the treetops in wooded areas, where motor failure etc. could get them hurt.
http://www.powerchutes.com/far103.htm
make him cover the cost of rescue
This is a complete redd herring - just get the TV networks to cover that cost, and they will still have had loads of very cheap footage!
The TV networks would insist on a complete re-enactment. Might be difficult to arrange. Or maybe they could do a computer simulation. And imagine a computer simulation with the Statue of Liberty shifting her torch to the other hand, and lowering the daring young man gently to ground level!
... or dipping her torch to crisp Daedalus like a moth over a candle!
Hey, fellas! I found a URL that gives a lot of information!
http://www1.sympatico.ca/news/Fullstories/w082338.html
Torch his chute I say!
Not his fault: she obviously carries a torch for him.
If they had been contemporaneous, what would the Colossus of Rhodes have said, if the Statue of Liberty had been towed on a barge into the harbor of Rhodes?
Maybe we should light the torch and let him try it again...see how game he is this time!
Many such illegal stunts have taken place in the passed, for example by so-called base-jumpers. The strange thing about this stunt was that he would have been caught whether he achieved a successful landing or not (unlike our base-jumpers), and that the stunt seemed practically impossible. The observation deck on the arm of the statue is tiny!!
As was the edifice upon which he caught himself.
Hoist on his own poignard.
and so fated to complete the delightful irony indeed®, of being deprived of his equal liberty by his stunt on old Liberté's fraternal bonnet!
Not to mention his Mastercard and AMEX.
Do you know me?
300 million Catholics do.
The American Express card.
Don't leave Rome without it.
K-A-R-L W-O-Y-T-I-L-A
what would the Colossus of Rhodes have said, if the Statue of Liberty had been towed on a barge into the harbor of Rhodes?
Don't know, but I can imagine Liberty with a Mae West accent:
"Is that a doric column, big boy, or are you just pleased to see me?"
"Is that a doric column, big boy, or are you just pleased to see me?"
"Non, m'amie, it is Ionian, please note the concentric spirals at the top!"
When I was learning to shoot pool, my teacher, Rodney, told me that when faced with no easy shot, imagine the most elaborate shot possible. If you make it, everyone will be in awe. If you miss it, well, it was a tough shot anyway. So the French guy missed it. It was a tough shot anyway.