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FROM NO-TECH TO LOW-TECH At long last, central electricity has arrived on the perpetually glorious sandy shores of our beloved Maenam Bay. The bungalow compounds have been connected to the island's electrical power station. Many people thought this would never happen . . . at least not in their lifetime. As the electricity was turned on, most of those people, as it turned out, were right. May they rest in peace. The connection was made without fanfare and occurred early this evening just prior to sunset. (See weather report below.) Reactions amongst those currently in residence have been, as the saying goes, mixed. The availability of 24-hour-a-day lighting was most enthusiastically hailed by those of limited bladder capacity who are forever waking up in the aptly named 'wee hours' of the morning and stumbling over bedside bottles of water (see the very first Daily Pageant exclusive on this subject). There are those who hope that TV, music videos and a local disco will soon follow, and there are others who despair at the very thought of such things. Some people haven't noticed the change at all yet, and most likely never will. These people haven't changed their style of clothing or way of thinking since they were seventeen years old. Most of them have been in a drug induced mental monsoon haze for a long, long time. In fact, one of them actually reported seeing several interplanetary flying saucers (IFSs), and tried to convince our paper to investigate--which, of course, we did (see sports report below). SPORTS NEWS: OUT OF THIS WHIRLED Whirling Frisbees was the game of choice yesterday, and--curiously enough--this popular enterprise was initially covered by the Pageant's crack investigative journalist. As alluded to in our news report, a vacationing vagabond of dubious acumen and a pharmaceutically laced imagination claimed to have sighted interplanetary flying saucers on the northeast point of the incessantly glorious sandy shores of our beloved Maenam Bay. Obviously, a story of this nature would fall under the category of "news," but when our investigative journalist arrived on the scene, it did not take long to realize what was happening. Consequently, he returned to the office and a sports reporter was dispatched to cover the story. Understandably, some quarters may query as to whether or not whirling Frisbees is actually a sport. According to the Oxford dictionary, sport is a "game or competitive activity usually involving physical exertion; amusement, fun…." Certainly, whirling Frisbees--though at the low end of the scale in terms of physical exertion--is nevertheless fun and amusing. Perhaps more fun and amusing because of its lack of competitive and physical exertion. This point was well expressed by one of the players during a brief interview with our reporter, whose opening question betrayed a mild degree of ignorance.… "Who won?" "Who won what?" came the reply. "The game of Frisbee." "Nobody won. What are you, crazy? You don't play Frisbee to win or lose. You play for fun. Also, it's good exercise. You want to play?" "No, not right now, thanks. I'm working." "Working?" "Yeah." "I didn't know it was possible to do that here. You are crazy." Filing a report on a game of Frisbee is not easy. The fact that there are no points scored and nobody wins or loses does remind one of many European football games, but the similarity ends there. So, what is the point? You do it for fun. That's it. Well, okay…. How many sports are left in this world that are only played for fun? Playing a game these days just for the sheer fun of it is about as rare as interplanetary flying saucers. Maybe that's what the fellow was thinking . . . but I doubt it. WEATHER: SUNSET'S NEW HUE The sun set last evening at . . . well, at sunset. Even we at The Daily Pageant do not expect our readers to consider this a particularly newsworthy event. We all know the sun sets at more or less the same time and on pretty much a daily basis. Without getting too technical, the reason for this is because the sun orb is rotating in one direction while we, as inhabitants of the earth orb, are rotating in another direction. Or something like that. If both orbs were rotating in sync, half of our planet would be burnt toast by now. And, if there's one thing we at the Pageant can't stand, it's burnt toast. What made last evening's sunset newsworthy was the interplay of twilight with the inaugural display of centrally powered electric light. This phenomenon cast an entirely new evening hue upon the interminably glorious sandy shores of our beloved Maenam Bay. It shall be interesting to observe how this new hue alters the landscape during the rainy season. You can rest assured that The Daily Pageant will be Johnny-on-the-spot to provide full coverage as it occurs. Stay tuned.… McFinn is from Chicago and currently resides in Cambodia. He has a degree in Philosophy from Georgetown University. Much of his work should be considered humorous and fictionalized memoirs. There are also satirical essays. Location settings include Thailand, Cambodia, India, Burma, Morocco and Greece. Excerpts, reviews & purchase information are available via his website: http://www.morganmcfinn.com
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Morgan McFinn, Koh Samui, Thailand, journalism, satire, humor, travel, tropical island paradise, sportsweather, parody,
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