Dogs Are Whores. . . And Other Thoughts On The Circus

I mean that in the nicest way possible, of course. It's just that much like Rock of Love contestants and Hills cast members, dogs will do anything for human attention and affection. So while it was entertaining to watch the dog act at Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Baily circus last night (they went on slides! they danced!), I didn't feel that it was the same level as the other acts. Watching the elephants, tigers and even the horses and zebras perform their tricks was so much more exciting and compelling and slightly disturbing. Almost like watching a great actor in a really bad television movie: you can almost feel them swallowing their pride and dignity. But you watch the movie anyway - and it turns out that you kind of enjoy it. Whereas you watch Rock of Love just to see how far the whores contestants will go to win a bone from Bret.

But aside from over-analyzing the animal acts, I had the BEST time at the circus last night. My lousy mood? Gone. Completely. Totally. Utterly gone. The circus is still a magical experience, and Ringling Brothers really caters to kids. Because of fantastic and wonderful Mom Central, we got to go early and meet the ringmaster and the lead clown. They did a little act for us and posed for pictures. Ringmasters have changed since my childhood - this one was young and hot. Er, not that I noticed that or anything. Anyway, because we were there early already, we got to go to the pre-show before it got crowded.

The pre-show starts an hour beforehand - you get to walk around the arena floor and meet the clowns, see tight rope walking, ponies and an elephant up close and even try on clown costumes. Ironflower and Lovebug were overwhelmed in a good way. But as it got more crowded, Mommy and Daddy got overwhelmed in a bad way so we went back to our seats. I fed the kids my snack arsenal (because WOW, stuff was expensive and of course they'd been too excited to eat much at the Mom Central event) in the few minutes before the show began.

And then WOW. Except for having to repeatedly explain to Lovebug that he couldn't actually go down and join the performers, the show was a dream. Ironflower was so enchanted that she was quieter than she's been in her entire life. All the cool rope stuff and trapeze work and cannons and tight ropes and tumbling (now with platforms) and those spinning circles and dancing and wild animals and a story line. . .was so completely cool. It was a great mix of the traditional idea of the circus and all the new ideas more recent circuses (I really wish I could write "circi" there, my two years of Latin - will they ever leave me alone?) have started.

It's still the greatest show on earth, thank you very much. *

*Except possibly for the elephants and tigers sacrificing their dignity for entertainment. But it's not like being hunted was probably all that great either.