Are you a demolition derby fan? / LJWorld.com

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Asked at The Community Mercantile, 901 S. Iowa on August 7, 2009

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“No, but my 4-year-old son is. He wants to be a monster truck driver.”

— Marta Calderon, massage therapist, Lawrence

“I’m not, but I can understand the appeal of destruction.”

— Aspen Junge, researcher, Lawrence

“No … I’ve only seen it once so I don’t think that qualifies me as a fan.”

— Jason Shea, graduate student, Topeka

“Yes, because I like seeing the cars catch on fire and stuff.”

— Anton Burt, fourth-grader, Carbondale

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H_Lecter 5 years, 7 months ago

There's not enough violence for me. I wish they would combine the derby w/hockey and after every car crash there would be a fight. Or maybe change the rules so that only the winner lives. (perhaps every driver has a baseball bat and when a car is knocked out of the race, so is the driver). The CIA could loan us a drone and then fire on the losers. or... Once a car stalls, the driver has to immediately get out, put on a blindfold and try to make it to the sideline. Now that would be exciting...and add betting on the winners/losers. Oh, the fun we could have.

RoeDapple 5 years, 7 months ago

No, but our president is...........

http://bobmccarty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/chevy-tahoe-crushed.jpg

Flap Doodle 5 years, 7 months ago

Watching members of Congress trying to avoid the consequences of their disastrous actions is much more entertaining.

Flap Doodle 5 years, 7 months ago

ODS is the other side of the BDS coin, babby.

RoeDapple 5 years, 7 months ago

BABBOY (Anonymous) says… "I am mostly joking, but if somehow every bump in the day makes you think “I hate Obama” then you have issues."

Assuming you mean my previous post, BabyBoy, it was joking on my part to post it!

Issues? A little over sensitive, BabyBoy? I'm sure a good psychiatrist could help you with that............

I'm mostly just joking, of course...............

dajudge 5 years, 7 months ago

What exactly does a message therapist do?

RoeDapple 5 years, 7 months ago

proof read?

Flap Doodle 5 years, 7 months ago

If you want to see a demolition derby try driving thru Dallas during a sleet storm.

persevering_gal 5 years, 7 months ago

dajudge -

I believe a message therapist is one who comes to work dressed up in a costume and delivers the singing telegrams. The ending results are mixed - either the recipient smiles and laughs or smacks the message therapist. :)

Chris Ogle 5 years, 7 months ago

Are you a demolition derby fan?

Good God I hope not..... The fan is right behind the radiator. Not a good place to be..... I would rather be a gas tank

Flap Doodle 5 years, 7 months ago

Good one, xbus.

grammaddy 5 years, 7 months ago

Nope, I'm a tree- hugger. I think the exhaust and waste of fuel are disgusting. Go Green. Can you have a demolition derby on bicycles? That might be fun!!

Mary Darst 5 years, 7 months ago

No, but my step-daught was when she was 16.

beatrice 5 years, 7 months ago

We return to this subject, so I return to a post of mine from a few years back. Hope you enjoy it.

The demolition derby is America at it finest, and its worst.

Americans love their cars, perhaps more so than people anywhere else. We define ourselves through our vehicular choice, be it a Hummer or a Prius. Automobiles have become a fetish of American culture, and demolition derbies respond to and celebrate that fetishism.

Where the Spanish have bullfights, we have demolition derbies. The drivers are our mechanized matadors, battling not against the beast, but against others like them in a magnificent and noisy ballet of smashing steel, smoke and destruction until a single survivor remains. It is speed, power, ingenuity, cunning, bravery, and luck -- an apt metaphor for any number of national activities, from politics to business.

And it embraces death, symbolic though it may be, something our culture otherwise likes to ignore. Requiem for a Ford.

Derbies also allow Americans to wallow in the splendor of consumerist waste. We appreciate that the older vehicles must be destroyed, a means of trumpeting in the new. Unlike the totemic, stationary bon-fire, in which the past is ceremonially sent asunder, the demolition derby is a moving, breathing, kinetic mess in which only the strong can dare contemplate anything other than the here and now in its presence.

Plus, a corn dog never tastes as good as it does while attending a derby.