9 Responses to “Shakespeare for Children”

1. 1.   Mandeep Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 12:02 am

   Hmm — i can guess deflation is one of the sad latter acts, but am not sure of the other..

2. 2.   Humble reader Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 2:31 am

   Perhaps there was a failed toplogical sphere-torus transition,
   or a local transient inflationary event of the boundary followed
   by failed budding off of a new ballon-verse. Tragic indeed, but
   on the bright side 10^500 ballons ought to yield one robust enough
   to this sort of thing.

3. 3.   CW Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 4:56 am

   I like to think there is a magical island somewhere inhabitated with the balloons that have escaped the clutches of a child’s hand. Live free, balloons. And live well. *sniff sniff*

4. 4.   Todd Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 8:11 am

   A balloon artist once handed my then-young daughter a balloon creation with the words, “Remember, balloons are fleeting and ephemeral.” It was so great a line that we’ve probably repeated it to her and her siblings hundreds of times over the years since, and it’s become synonymous with balloon art for us.

5. 5.   Julianne Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 8:53 am

   “Remember, balloons are fleeting and ephemeral.”

   This is probably better than my usual “Remember, this will not end well.”

6. 6.   Alberto Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 10:02 am

   What a perfect tweet! You should tweet, Julianne! What’s your tweet handle?

7. 7.   Metre Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 12:01 pm

   “Remember, balloons are fleeting and ephemeral.”

   In other words, an inflated balloon is a low entropy state, while a punctured, deflated balloon is a high entropy state, then remind the child about the 2nd Law. Surely kids will understand that?

8. 8.   PrettyFun Says:
   March 22nd, 2010 at 6:58 pm

   As a professional entertainer, I’ve probably made five thousand balloons for kids, although that isn’t my primary role. Rather than tell them it’s “ephemeral” I usually advise “keep it away from anything sharp or hot.” However, I’m commenting to point out that there’s nothing “inevitable” about the last act being a tragedy. I learned quickly that balloons were not very durable toys, and came up with a solution: put a durable toy inside the balloon, that the child gets when the balloon pops. The most common one I use is a small rubber ‘fuzzy ball’ that’s more fun than the balloon.

9. 9.   Andrew Says:
   March 31st, 2010 at 6:11 pm

   prettyfun: you are destroying our dark sarcastic fun by bringing joy to children instead of inevitable balloon tragedy. bah.