Day: May 24, 2004

All right, you can listen to an excerpt of the Spider-Man 2 audiobook here.

…did we mention that the Spider-Man 2 novelization comes out tomorrow? And that you can pre-order it? Okay, then. Soft sell over, true believers.

A thirty two year old circus performer plunged to her death at Ringling Bros. over the weekend. At the moment, no criminal prosecution is being looked at, and it’s seen as a tragic accident (although why the hëll there was no net under her remains totally bewildering. Then again, even when used, nets can be missed or you can land wrong, break your neck, and adios.)

She has (had) two young children who are being trained to join the act.

Sooner or later, somehow, somewhere in this country, luck is going to run out and a child circus performer is going to be killed.

At which point no one will say there’s no investigation of criminal prosecution. No one is going to say, oh, it’s a tragic accident in a high risk profession.

Instead there’s going to be a thundering of outcries over child endangerment. Investigations will be launched. Social services will be brought in. Children will be taken from their parents. And anyone under the age of eighteen will be banned from any act more hazardous than juggling. All the safety harnesses in the world don’t matter because, sooner or later, something’s gonna break.

So circus families might as well take the initiative now and stop using kids in anything remotely high risk…before the odds, and the law, catches up with them.

PAD