d***@gmail.com
2009-01-06 07:45:32 UTC
Not really a difficult challenge, just basically to put it together
wasn't the gimme the last couple of Easies were...
2009 New Year’s Challenge
Easy Challenge -- “Two Special Requests”
Team: Team Abject Silliness. Rosetta Passell, Anna Heart and Leon
Oswald from “Kaleido Star” and me, the writer, Michael Falkner.
---
It was finally New Year’s. I actually had a contact previously from
the current chairman of New Year’s Con that he was going to move the
location of the show to Southern California, as well as keep me
abreast if he needed me (and whomever I was bringing this year) for
anything.
Literally two days before New Year’s Day -- the start of the show -- I
got the following e-mail, which I scanned one more time before I went
to the machine.
“Mike, come to Opening Ceremonies, and bring whomever you’re bringing
from ‘Kaleido Stage’ this year. We’re going to need you and them.
I’ll announce it at Opening Ceremonies. It‘s important.”
Well, with that, I checked the ol’ trusty Zap-I-Tron 2000 to make sure
I was all set for some silliness.
When all was in readiness, I sent for them.
Anna was smiling upon her arrival. They knew I was going to send for
them -- somehow. (This was the third year for all three of them.)
Leon was holding Rosetta, who was crying…
Me: “Rosetta, what’s wrong?”
Realistically, that’s all I could ask. Rosetta tried to form words,
but the only things which would come out were tears.
Anna turned me aside.
Anna: “It’s good to see you again.”
Me: “What’s wrong with Rosetta?”
Anna almost couldn’t get it out either.
Anna: “They closed Kaleido Stage forever two weeks ago.”
Rosetta (bawling): “But why?? Why was my dream denied? Was I not
good enough??”
I almost didn’t need the answer to the question, but I pretty much
knew it straight-away.
Leon confirmed it: “Our investors were victims of various fraudulent
schemes.”
I nodded vehemently. Bastards. I had a feeling that might happen to
my friends.
Me: “So, are the others coming when I call for them?”
Leon: “Yes. They are looking forward to it. The remaining investors
are throwing whatever resources they can together to send our troupe
off with a bang, as it were.”
Anna: “They will take us anywhere we want to go, put us up in the
best hotels, everything. They got a lot of money from us and are
greatly thankful.”
I nodded. I was happy to hear it.
Rosetta (still crying): “But that means I no longer get to perform
with Sora…”
I could only hug the little Belgian, even though she was 18 by now.
Me: “Rosetta, there are many things going on in this world that I do
not and cannot understand. All I can say is that the years you have
had on the Kaleido Stage have given you friends that you can never
forget. I hope you all stay in contact.”
Anna: “And we plan to. So I guess it’s time for the ‘Challenge’?”
That almost snapped me to. Rosetta’s crying face and the end of
Kaleido Stage had me distracted for a time.
Now, it was about 3 hours to Opening Ceremonies and we had to get an
hour’s drive to Los Angeles.
Me: “We need to get to Los Angeles from here in Riverside, and I
don’t have a car.”
Leon: “Don’t worry about that. Just show me where we can rent one…”
===
Actually, it turned even easier than that. We basically all went to
the Greyhound station, and they, fortunately, had some seats on a bus
which was imminently arriving to go to Los Angeles. We caught some
breaks in the transit transfers once in LA, and got to the hotel where
the convention was being held with about 20 minutes to spare.
We barely caught our breath when the Vice-Chair of New Year’s Con,
with my picture to recognize me, grabbed me, threw some badges on us
as Program Participants, and ran us into the Opening Ceremonies room.
Leon: “They could tell us what’s going on first…”
Anna and Rosetta both nodded, literally out of breath.
Me (similarly out of breath): “They’ll tell us at Opening
Ceremonies…”
Just then, the Chairman came out. It was good to see his face. We
had not seen each other since I moved to Southern California in
February and had one brief weekend to get caught up in August.
He quickly took the microphone, introduced the (other) guests, and
then turned to us.
Chairman: “We have something we have been given the task to do from
an old friend of New Year‘s Con.”
“As you may know, this New Year’s Con has gone on for a number of
years. What you may not know is that I was not the originator of the
program. I was given the chairman-ship after the founder decided to
take some time off about three years ago.”
“About 72 hours ago, I received word that the founder of this great
convention had to be quickly hospitalized with stomach pains. It
turns out his appendix had burst, and, with complications, he’s going
to be in the hospital for about a month and a half.”
Many of us gasped. I know I did.
Chairman: “It turns out that he is going to be all right. The
injuries are not life-threatening, but he does have to spend the next
six weeks in the hospital.”
“The expense is not an issue. He made a lot of money in various
convention-related matters, and he wanted to make clear to all of you
that monetary donations would not be accepted for his hospital care.”
Knowing what six weeks in the hospital for a burst appendix and God
only knows what else would run, I was surprised, but we shrugged our
shoulders and said “OK” to it.
Chairman: “Mike, bring your friends up.”
So Anna, Rosetta and Leon came with me. Vociferous applause followed
for at least two of the three Kaleido Stagers. I nudged Rosetta
forward to smile at the audience. It was taking some time, but they
warmed to it.
Chairman: “He has two very special requests. As you well know, he is
quite into the Japanese culture, but sometimes also quite eccentric.”
“His first request is simple: He would like, for a get-well present,
1000 origami cranes.”
We all smiled. That was simple enough, and we’d have a convention
full of people willing to help us out.
Chairman: “Michael and his friends are in charge of room 152, right
next to the Con Suite. In lieu of paying for the Con Suite food and
drink, we would openly request any and all assistance in making cranes
for the best ‘Get Well Soon’ present ever.”
The crowd, and us, applauded.
Chairman: “Unfortunately, I have to give my friend some bad news…”
I arched my eyebrow. When _he_ would say this, I knew this couldn’t
be good.
Chairman: “Michael, I just told you that he was also very eccentric.
He doesn’t want each of the cranes alone. He actually wants the
cranes, each one with an individual picture of a different
impersonator of Colonel Sanders.”
I almost fell over. Once, for the utter incredulity of it…
Me: “You sure this isn’t the same guy who wanted the cottage cheese
and the nude pictures of Bea Arthur??”
That almost sent the room into an uproar.
Chairman: “That would be a ‘no’.”
… and then the second time I almost fell over was the thought of
trying to find a thousand Colonel Sanders look-alikes.
Chairman: “… but you have six weeks to get them together.”
Like that was going to help…
===
At least I didn’t have to worry too much about the immediate concerns
of putting together that many origami cranes. The room was quickly
set up to our specifications -- lots of paper, streamers, party hats,
a DVD player playing the entire “Kaleido Star” series (with more than
one time, my three partners exclaiming how anyone could’ve gotten that
footage…), and the ladies teaching me the art of origami between all
the kids coming in and out to make cranes so that we would give them
stickers so that the people at the Con Suite would know they took part
in our little “project”.
Anna: “You really have two left hands -- you know that, Michael?”
Me: “Sorry, never was that dextrous outside of typing…”
Rosetta: “Don’t say that about Michael. He’s trying…”
I smiled. “Rosetta, she just wants me to do better for the time she’s
putting in to help me.”
Anna then put her arm around me, and I jumped as if zapped…
Well, I was zapped. Anna had put a buzzer in her hand to zap me. And
then, when I sat back down…
“PPPPPPPPPPPPPUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT!!!”
I immediately sprang up, yelled, “Cut that out, Anna!!”, and grabbed
the whoopee cushion and threw it at her.
Anna grinned. “You’re still so sensitive. Settle down!”
Me: “It’s hard. It’s been a really tough holiday season for my
friend and I, and I can only say that it has kind of worn me to a
frazzle.”
Leon, who we put in charge of handling the cranes, putting them in
storage containers, and giving the ribbons to the creators of the
cranes, smiled.
Leon: “Then, I guess we can help you out too. But you do know how
hard this is for me.”
Me: “You can keep learning about all of the wonderful ways that those
of us who do care show it. I know I still have to.”
Rosetta gave me a hug (sans buzzer).
Rosetta: “That’s more what I want to hear.”
=======
The rest of the weekend went pretty much without incident. We had the
room open essentially concurrent to the Con Suite, and spent a lot of
time just talking…
Me: “So what are you guys going to do?”
Leon: “Word is that they may get us a tour in a few months to get one
more production together. We’ll know more as time goes on.”
Anna: “I’ve already gotten a couple of people writing to me, asking
about any future in comedy… The problem is that I do more slapstick,
and some of the actual stuff on stage makes even my father retch.”
I nodded. Some of the stuff is so vulgar that Anna wouldn’t want a
part of it.
Anna: “But I have resolved to still have fun. I’ve already been
assigned to go over as part of a team with the USO to cheer up
hospitalized troops in the war zones of the Middle East.”
I smiled (well, kind of a half-smile -- I didn’t like Herr Bush and
his plans for continual war, but was proud of Anna for taking this
opportunity to help cheer up the victims of those plans.)
Leon: “Rosetta and I are both going back to France. Rosetta’s mother
is probably going to get a guest turn for her with Cirque Noir until
plans for our Farewell Tour have materialized…”
Rosetta: “And Leon is touring Europe. May may be going with him if
we can convince her that Sora won’t be around to upstage her.”
The four of us giggled.
Rosetta: “Can I go out with my diabolo and perform for some of the
kids?”
I turned to the pool deck, seeing a small open space which could be
made slightly larger.
Me: “I can’t see why not. Leon, want to join her and do some small
tricks.”
He was already halfway out the door -- if it weren’t so out of
character for him, I thought I might’ve caught a glimpse of a smile.
Anna and I got back to work. Still dozens and dozens more to make for
the 1000 total.
Basically, when one of them wasn’t relieving me so I could sleep in
the room we crashed out in, they went out to perform (often with the
kids -- Rosetta knows how to teach diabolo, and didn’t even charge me
a billion dollars to do so… ;) ). We had to get security to have a
line to get people to do it so they could come and see Rosetta and
Anna and Leon.
======
By the end of the convention, we had clean-up:
“996 … 997 … 998 … 999 … 1,000 -- and so many more to pack into a
storage unit!!”
Me: “Good, but let’s remember that was only _half the problem_…”
Leon: “Now, who is this Colonel Saunders??”
Me: “Sanders. Colonel Sanders.”
“Anyway, he was basically the creator of the recipe for what became
Kentucky Fried Chicken, the most famous chicken restaurant throughout
the world.”
Rosetta: “Sora took me there a couple times.”
Anna: “Me too. We kept throwing chicken bones at her…”
Leon: “That’s one reason I never came with.”
Me: “The problem is finding 1,000 of these impersonators to come up
with. I have found several websites for contests for look-alikes of
the Colonel, the largest being the World Chicken Festival in London,
Kentucky.”
“The problem is either finding or making one in the six-week window we
have.”
Just then, the Chairman showed up…
Chairman (exhausted from the con): “I can help with that, if you need
it. I already was contacting some people for ideas, and they largely
came to the same conclusion.”
Rosetta: “And that is?”
Chairman: “We’ve reserved an exhibit room in Las Vegas for the
Saturday after your birthday, Michael… Can you get them back here at
that time?”
Me: “That’d be in about three weeks. You all cool with it?”
They all were, and I went to set up the good ol’ Zap-I-Tron to bring
them back then. With waves and hugs, they were off…
======
Chairman: “This is how we do it, Mike…”
“I need you to get in touch with any advertising you can find, as well
as with KFC if you can…”
Me: “So I think the first prize should be not only a year’s supply of
KFC, but automatic entry into the World Chicken Festival’s
competition, as well as airfare and accomodations in Kentucky…”
The money Rosetta left me to handle all that would more than cover it
several times over.
Chairman: “Yeah, we need a thousand… So the prize is going to have
to be worth it. Let’s hope for the best…”
======
Oh, what a weak economy can do. The promise of a year of free chicken
and a weekend in Vegas (not to mention a free vacation to Kentucky)
brought out the thousand, and then some!! The promise of free
publicity not only got KFC and the World Chicken Festival on board,
but as top-level partners of our little event.
Rosetta, Leon, and Anna were more than happily back to finish our
work!
Anna tried out some of her comedy the night before on the
participants, and got some good feedback.
Rosetta and Leon performed for the numerous children who came along.
We bought a professional photographer, and made the picture with the
crane the first part of the judging.
We were abjectly floored -- we had 1,300 cranes (give or take a few
dozen), and used them all (a couple twice, but I don’t think anyone
really noticed…).
When they were printed out, one in particular wanted a second picture
taken…
He signed it: “Get well soon… Col. Bob Thompson.”
(One of the premiere Colonel Sanders impersonators. I recognized his
name from several of the websites.)
Another was signed by John Baxley, the official KFC Sanders
impersonator (at least at one time).
As soon as we had the 1,000 best pictured impersonators, we bundled
their pictures up with the cranes back in storage, and went to the
hospital in California…
======
The next day, a Monday (the 26th of January), we got to the hospital
where the founder was staying.
After a few minutes of weakly trying to explain what we were doing, we
got to the room of the founder of New Year’s Con, and were let in,
slowly…
His eyes lit up the moment we brought the box of cranes in.
Founder: “I can’t believe you actually did it!”
Me: “You’ll believe it even less when you see this…”
And then I set the pictures on the floor next to the bed.
Founder: “You don’t understand what this means to me, guys… I mean,
I always used to have Kentucky Fried Chicken during our conventions.
It was one of my first tastes of America as a child after I moved from
Japan.”
“And now you’ve gone and done it. After all you’ve already done for
our convention, Michael -- and to our three friends too…”
Rosetta smiled and hugged the founder of New Year’s Con -- both cried
a little.
Anna smiled and hugged him as well, but not before showing her hands
to be free of any trickery.
Leon just settled for a handshake.
Me: “Where you gonna put all this?”
Founder: “At home. I want to always have visions of the first taste
of America I had. I am hopeful that, once everything recovers, I can
continue to eat those herbs and spices.”
Leon: “For now, get some rest. Michael, we do have to go too…”
Anna: “I don’t know if we’ll be back next year -- but we will be if
you can find us!”
Rosetta kissed me on the cheek and waved, a tear in her eye, before
the three faded out.
wasn't the gimme the last couple of Easies were...
2009 New Year’s Challenge
Easy Challenge -- “Two Special Requests”
Team: Team Abject Silliness. Rosetta Passell, Anna Heart and Leon
Oswald from “Kaleido Star” and me, the writer, Michael Falkner.
---
It was finally New Year’s. I actually had a contact previously from
the current chairman of New Year’s Con that he was going to move the
location of the show to Southern California, as well as keep me
abreast if he needed me (and whomever I was bringing this year) for
anything.
Literally two days before New Year’s Day -- the start of the show -- I
got the following e-mail, which I scanned one more time before I went
to the machine.
“Mike, come to Opening Ceremonies, and bring whomever you’re bringing
from ‘Kaleido Stage’ this year. We’re going to need you and them.
I’ll announce it at Opening Ceremonies. It‘s important.”
Well, with that, I checked the ol’ trusty Zap-I-Tron 2000 to make sure
I was all set for some silliness.
When all was in readiness, I sent for them.
Anna was smiling upon her arrival. They knew I was going to send for
them -- somehow. (This was the third year for all three of them.)
Leon was holding Rosetta, who was crying…
Me: “Rosetta, what’s wrong?”
Realistically, that’s all I could ask. Rosetta tried to form words,
but the only things which would come out were tears.
Anna turned me aside.
Anna: “It’s good to see you again.”
Me: “What’s wrong with Rosetta?”
Anna almost couldn’t get it out either.
Anna: “They closed Kaleido Stage forever two weeks ago.”
Rosetta (bawling): “But why?? Why was my dream denied? Was I not
good enough??”
I almost didn’t need the answer to the question, but I pretty much
knew it straight-away.
Leon confirmed it: “Our investors were victims of various fraudulent
schemes.”
I nodded vehemently. Bastards. I had a feeling that might happen to
my friends.
Me: “So, are the others coming when I call for them?”
Leon: “Yes. They are looking forward to it. The remaining investors
are throwing whatever resources they can together to send our troupe
off with a bang, as it were.”
Anna: “They will take us anywhere we want to go, put us up in the
best hotels, everything. They got a lot of money from us and are
greatly thankful.”
I nodded. I was happy to hear it.
Rosetta (still crying): “But that means I no longer get to perform
with Sora…”
I could only hug the little Belgian, even though she was 18 by now.
Me: “Rosetta, there are many things going on in this world that I do
not and cannot understand. All I can say is that the years you have
had on the Kaleido Stage have given you friends that you can never
forget. I hope you all stay in contact.”
Anna: “And we plan to. So I guess it’s time for the ‘Challenge’?”
That almost snapped me to. Rosetta’s crying face and the end of
Kaleido Stage had me distracted for a time.
Now, it was about 3 hours to Opening Ceremonies and we had to get an
hour’s drive to Los Angeles.
Me: “We need to get to Los Angeles from here in Riverside, and I
don’t have a car.”
Leon: “Don’t worry about that. Just show me where we can rent one…”
===
Actually, it turned even easier than that. We basically all went to
the Greyhound station, and they, fortunately, had some seats on a bus
which was imminently arriving to go to Los Angeles. We caught some
breaks in the transit transfers once in LA, and got to the hotel where
the convention was being held with about 20 minutes to spare.
We barely caught our breath when the Vice-Chair of New Year’s Con,
with my picture to recognize me, grabbed me, threw some badges on us
as Program Participants, and ran us into the Opening Ceremonies room.
Leon: “They could tell us what’s going on first…”
Anna and Rosetta both nodded, literally out of breath.
Me (similarly out of breath): “They’ll tell us at Opening
Ceremonies…”
Just then, the Chairman came out. It was good to see his face. We
had not seen each other since I moved to Southern California in
February and had one brief weekend to get caught up in August.
He quickly took the microphone, introduced the (other) guests, and
then turned to us.
Chairman: “We have something we have been given the task to do from
an old friend of New Year‘s Con.”
“As you may know, this New Year’s Con has gone on for a number of
years. What you may not know is that I was not the originator of the
program. I was given the chairman-ship after the founder decided to
take some time off about three years ago.”
“About 72 hours ago, I received word that the founder of this great
convention had to be quickly hospitalized with stomach pains. It
turns out his appendix had burst, and, with complications, he’s going
to be in the hospital for about a month and a half.”
Many of us gasped. I know I did.
Chairman: “It turns out that he is going to be all right. The
injuries are not life-threatening, but he does have to spend the next
six weeks in the hospital.”
“The expense is not an issue. He made a lot of money in various
convention-related matters, and he wanted to make clear to all of you
that monetary donations would not be accepted for his hospital care.”
Knowing what six weeks in the hospital for a burst appendix and God
only knows what else would run, I was surprised, but we shrugged our
shoulders and said “OK” to it.
Chairman: “Mike, bring your friends up.”
So Anna, Rosetta and Leon came with me. Vociferous applause followed
for at least two of the three Kaleido Stagers. I nudged Rosetta
forward to smile at the audience. It was taking some time, but they
warmed to it.
Chairman: “He has two very special requests. As you well know, he is
quite into the Japanese culture, but sometimes also quite eccentric.”
“His first request is simple: He would like, for a get-well present,
1000 origami cranes.”
We all smiled. That was simple enough, and we’d have a convention
full of people willing to help us out.
Chairman: “Michael and his friends are in charge of room 152, right
next to the Con Suite. In lieu of paying for the Con Suite food and
drink, we would openly request any and all assistance in making cranes
for the best ‘Get Well Soon’ present ever.”
The crowd, and us, applauded.
Chairman: “Unfortunately, I have to give my friend some bad news…”
I arched my eyebrow. When _he_ would say this, I knew this couldn’t
be good.
Chairman: “Michael, I just told you that he was also very eccentric.
He doesn’t want each of the cranes alone. He actually wants the
cranes, each one with an individual picture of a different
impersonator of Colonel Sanders.”
I almost fell over. Once, for the utter incredulity of it…
Me: “You sure this isn’t the same guy who wanted the cottage cheese
and the nude pictures of Bea Arthur??”
That almost sent the room into an uproar.
Chairman: “That would be a ‘no’.”
… and then the second time I almost fell over was the thought of
trying to find a thousand Colonel Sanders look-alikes.
Chairman: “… but you have six weeks to get them together.”
Like that was going to help…
===
At least I didn’t have to worry too much about the immediate concerns
of putting together that many origami cranes. The room was quickly
set up to our specifications -- lots of paper, streamers, party hats,
a DVD player playing the entire “Kaleido Star” series (with more than
one time, my three partners exclaiming how anyone could’ve gotten that
footage…), and the ladies teaching me the art of origami between all
the kids coming in and out to make cranes so that we would give them
stickers so that the people at the Con Suite would know they took part
in our little “project”.
Anna: “You really have two left hands -- you know that, Michael?”
Me: “Sorry, never was that dextrous outside of typing…”
Rosetta: “Don’t say that about Michael. He’s trying…”
I smiled. “Rosetta, she just wants me to do better for the time she’s
putting in to help me.”
Anna then put her arm around me, and I jumped as if zapped…
Well, I was zapped. Anna had put a buzzer in her hand to zap me. And
then, when I sat back down…
“PPPPPPPPPPPPPUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT!!!”
I immediately sprang up, yelled, “Cut that out, Anna!!”, and grabbed
the whoopee cushion and threw it at her.
Anna grinned. “You’re still so sensitive. Settle down!”
Me: “It’s hard. It’s been a really tough holiday season for my
friend and I, and I can only say that it has kind of worn me to a
frazzle.”
Leon, who we put in charge of handling the cranes, putting them in
storage containers, and giving the ribbons to the creators of the
cranes, smiled.
Leon: “Then, I guess we can help you out too. But you do know how
hard this is for me.”
Me: “You can keep learning about all of the wonderful ways that those
of us who do care show it. I know I still have to.”
Rosetta gave me a hug (sans buzzer).
Rosetta: “That’s more what I want to hear.”
=======
The rest of the weekend went pretty much without incident. We had the
room open essentially concurrent to the Con Suite, and spent a lot of
time just talking…
Me: “So what are you guys going to do?”
Leon: “Word is that they may get us a tour in a few months to get one
more production together. We’ll know more as time goes on.”
Anna: “I’ve already gotten a couple of people writing to me, asking
about any future in comedy… The problem is that I do more slapstick,
and some of the actual stuff on stage makes even my father retch.”
I nodded. Some of the stuff is so vulgar that Anna wouldn’t want a
part of it.
Anna: “But I have resolved to still have fun. I’ve already been
assigned to go over as part of a team with the USO to cheer up
hospitalized troops in the war zones of the Middle East.”
I smiled (well, kind of a half-smile -- I didn’t like Herr Bush and
his plans for continual war, but was proud of Anna for taking this
opportunity to help cheer up the victims of those plans.)
Leon: “Rosetta and I are both going back to France. Rosetta’s mother
is probably going to get a guest turn for her with Cirque Noir until
plans for our Farewell Tour have materialized…”
Rosetta: “And Leon is touring Europe. May may be going with him if
we can convince her that Sora won’t be around to upstage her.”
The four of us giggled.
Rosetta: “Can I go out with my diabolo and perform for some of the
kids?”
I turned to the pool deck, seeing a small open space which could be
made slightly larger.
Me: “I can’t see why not. Leon, want to join her and do some small
tricks.”
He was already halfway out the door -- if it weren’t so out of
character for him, I thought I might’ve caught a glimpse of a smile.
Anna and I got back to work. Still dozens and dozens more to make for
the 1000 total.
Basically, when one of them wasn’t relieving me so I could sleep in
the room we crashed out in, they went out to perform (often with the
kids -- Rosetta knows how to teach diabolo, and didn’t even charge me
a billion dollars to do so… ;) ). We had to get security to have a
line to get people to do it so they could come and see Rosetta and
Anna and Leon.
======
By the end of the convention, we had clean-up:
“996 … 997 … 998 … 999 … 1,000 -- and so many more to pack into a
storage unit!!”
Me: “Good, but let’s remember that was only _half the problem_…”
Leon: “Now, who is this Colonel Saunders??”
Me: “Sanders. Colonel Sanders.”
“Anyway, he was basically the creator of the recipe for what became
Kentucky Fried Chicken, the most famous chicken restaurant throughout
the world.”
Rosetta: “Sora took me there a couple times.”
Anna: “Me too. We kept throwing chicken bones at her…”
Leon: “That’s one reason I never came with.”
Me: “The problem is finding 1,000 of these impersonators to come up
with. I have found several websites for contests for look-alikes of
the Colonel, the largest being the World Chicken Festival in London,
Kentucky.”
“The problem is either finding or making one in the six-week window we
have.”
Just then, the Chairman showed up…
Chairman (exhausted from the con): “I can help with that, if you need
it. I already was contacting some people for ideas, and they largely
came to the same conclusion.”
Rosetta: “And that is?”
Chairman: “We’ve reserved an exhibit room in Las Vegas for the
Saturday after your birthday, Michael… Can you get them back here at
that time?”
Me: “That’d be in about three weeks. You all cool with it?”
They all were, and I went to set up the good ol’ Zap-I-Tron to bring
them back then. With waves and hugs, they were off…
======
Chairman: “This is how we do it, Mike…”
“I need you to get in touch with any advertising you can find, as well
as with KFC if you can…”
Me: “So I think the first prize should be not only a year’s supply of
KFC, but automatic entry into the World Chicken Festival’s
competition, as well as airfare and accomodations in Kentucky…”
The money Rosetta left me to handle all that would more than cover it
several times over.
Chairman: “Yeah, we need a thousand… So the prize is going to have
to be worth it. Let’s hope for the best…”
======
Oh, what a weak economy can do. The promise of a year of free chicken
and a weekend in Vegas (not to mention a free vacation to Kentucky)
brought out the thousand, and then some!! The promise of free
publicity not only got KFC and the World Chicken Festival on board,
but as top-level partners of our little event.
Rosetta, Leon, and Anna were more than happily back to finish our
work!
Anna tried out some of her comedy the night before on the
participants, and got some good feedback.
Rosetta and Leon performed for the numerous children who came along.
We bought a professional photographer, and made the picture with the
crane the first part of the judging.
We were abjectly floored -- we had 1,300 cranes (give or take a few
dozen), and used them all (a couple twice, but I don’t think anyone
really noticed…).
When they were printed out, one in particular wanted a second picture
taken…
He signed it: “Get well soon… Col. Bob Thompson.”
(One of the premiere Colonel Sanders impersonators. I recognized his
name from several of the websites.)
Another was signed by John Baxley, the official KFC Sanders
impersonator (at least at one time).
As soon as we had the 1,000 best pictured impersonators, we bundled
their pictures up with the cranes back in storage, and went to the
hospital in California…
======
The next day, a Monday (the 26th of January), we got to the hospital
where the founder was staying.
After a few minutes of weakly trying to explain what we were doing, we
got to the room of the founder of New Year’s Con, and were let in,
slowly…
His eyes lit up the moment we brought the box of cranes in.
Founder: “I can’t believe you actually did it!”
Me: “You’ll believe it even less when you see this…”
And then I set the pictures on the floor next to the bed.
Founder: “You don’t understand what this means to me, guys… I mean,
I always used to have Kentucky Fried Chicken during our conventions.
It was one of my first tastes of America as a child after I moved from
Japan.”
“And now you’ve gone and done it. After all you’ve already done for
our convention, Michael -- and to our three friends too…”
Rosetta smiled and hugged the founder of New Year’s Con -- both cried
a little.
Anna smiled and hugged him as well, but not before showing her hands
to be free of any trickery.
Leon just settled for a handshake.
Me: “Where you gonna put all this?”
Founder: “At home. I want to always have visions of the first taste
of America I had. I am hopeful that, once everything recovers, I can
continue to eat those herbs and spices.”
Leon: “For now, get some rest. Michael, we do have to go too…”
Anna: “I don’t know if we’ll be back next year -- but we will be if
you can find us!”
Rosetta kissed me on the cheek and waved, a tear in her eye, before
the three faded out.