The Cone Issue #7 Fall 2015 - Food | Page 65

IV. Day Five…A Close Call (Wherein our correspondent is taken for an unnerving ride through the turbulent byways of a strife-torn city to ultimate, though doubtless only temporary, safety) Gary Johnson at National Archaeological Museum, Athens September 12 at 8:42am · The election is tomorrow. Today we got our first real taste of the turmoil seething just below the calm facade. After a day at the spectacular national museum, we were treated to a rather lengthy and circuitous trip back to our hotel. The fare was twice the amount we had paid to get to the museum earlier. But (as the driver explained) he took this route to avoid a huge demonstration that threatened to put us in harm's way! We were ever so grateful to that solicitous cabbie! (Oddly, no mention was made of any demonstration in the local media. Censorship??? I fear that we will never know...) • Gary Johnson: Luckily, we leave early tomorrow for the Peloponnese, before the polls open. Hopefully, we'll miss most of the bloodshed. • Hugh: Keeps it interesting. • Gary Johnson: UPDATE-CORRECTION! Our very solicitous cabbie seems to have been confused about the date of the election...it is next Sunday. Perhaps he was also confused about the demonstration... V. Day Six…An Attempt to Communicate (Wherein our correspondent makes a valiant if ultimately futile effort to ameliorate the pervasive suffering of the indigenous populace) Gary Johnson at Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus September 13 at 1:22pm · Standing, center stage...15,000 stone seats rising above me in a vast semicircle...Thespis himself might have stood here before me...THIS -- is the Theatre of Epidaurus!...brought back to vibrant life a century ago after two millennia of silent slumber under rich Peloponnesian soil...And I realize finally that it is up to me, and my humble talents, to bring some hope back into the sadly resigned and hopeless eyes of these tired, these poor, these huddled dozens above me...And I thought, what shall I sing?...And the answer came to me in a sudden epiphany...I SHALL SING OF HOPE!!!...And so I sang...I sang of a new world of hope....I sang the immortal "This Land Is Your Land"...and as the words "from California to the New York island" echoed around me, I could see the Hope gleaming in the eyes of those pitiful souls above me...Some of those gleams seemed almost...metallic?...and I left the stage to what I assume in Greece is the equivalent of thunderous applause...A truly magical moment!!! • • • • • • • Susan: And then---? Gary Johnson: ...and then...I wiped the tomatoes off and walked back to the car... Liz: Curtain call. Gary Johnson: Yeah. My fat Greek chance... Karen: FANTASTIC!!! X Gary Johnson: Yes, it was fantastic. I made it out alive... Jan H.: Lay off the retsina. 65 THE CONE - ISSUE #7 - FALL 2015 4