(un)Happy children

this is in the boston common, a while back already. the balloon man is on the phone, while creating balloon art, his son (i presume) is sitting next to him, being bored and doing nothing.

just read on the dutch online news site that from december onwards the classic happy meal is prohibited by law in san francisco (here a link to the english version). or rather, that is the title of the piece. to be precise; it is not allowed anymore to hand out toys with an unhealthy meal. only when the meal fulfills the following requirements, toys can accompany it; no more than 600 calories, and there must be some fruit & vegetables. also the beverage must be healthy.

buuuuuhhhhh!! now isnt that just ridiculous! the fun of mc donald's is that there you can eat something delicious but unhealthy that you normally dont get at home (or so it should be), and on top of that, you get a toy! isnt that the entire idea behind the happy meal? well, at least the happy meal is still allowed, i would suggest mc donalds that they make the happy meal a tiny bit cheaper and that you then buy the toy separately. when asked; all in one bag? you answer yes... :)

Balloon man

this guy i saw before in the boston common. here he was in cambridge, actually on the day the dutch lost from spain..... there was some festival going on, it was bastille day, but i saw nothing special. as i noticed before at the common as well, children are a little afraid of him, they do like his balloon creations, but they dont want to come too close to him. why? because hes a little scary? or just because hes an adult...? (i found him a little scary..)
ah, and i am wondering why their father (?) is filming him.. maybe so that he can do this at home as well?

Boston common

on sunday we were in Boston Common, a central public park in Boston. it is one of the oldest parks in the US of A, dating from 1634. however, at that time it was not a park! (so how can it be the oldest park?!), at that time cows were grazing here, but they did that too much and then there was no grass anymore... ah, and it was also used for public hangings until 1817, first on an oak (which one, it was not indicated as far as i saw), but later on a gallows (a word i just learned; if u dont know it; catch up on your wikipedia-reading!). but only in 1830, when the cows and gallows were gone, it became a true public park. in 2007, 2 teenagers were shot there, but on sunday it seemed a nice and quiet park with nice green grass, many squirrels, children, policemen on horses, and this balloonman. i observed him for a while. he was mostly just standing there, waiting till someone came by. he did not make an effort to attract children. and in a way it was so sad to see him just standing there with all those stupid balloons attached, while it was so hot! on the picture above he had just made a nice balloon-thingie for the girl, and then her father had to take care of the financial side of this balloon act...