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!!!
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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.
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THE CONE - ISSUE #7 - FALL 2015
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