September 17, 2008
Wednesday

The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams is my outlet of choice for a brief digest of the day’s happenings. I was somewhat alarmed on Monday when, recounting the first day of the current financial meltdown, Mr. Williams looked drawn and tired and seemed to sigh three or four times. He seemed more upbeat last night. Just before tonight’s broadcast Ron informed me that a firm that held an investment we happened to liquidate last week had reported very bad news today, but the funds we put the proceeds into seemed to have weathered this week just fine. Brian Williams, too, seemed even calmer tonight. Perhaps he did the same thing.

The Nightly News follows a predictable pattern. First the big national stuff — people’s life savings evaporating when their investment company’s house of cards collapses, people’s homes floating away when their town’s sea wall collapses, people’s children put at risk when the integrity of the companies who make the food they feed their families collapses. After twenty minutes of that, there is the lighter fare — feel good stories about rescued baby animals or people working hard to mitigate ignorance and want that send you into the evening a little less mired in misery.

One story in the human interest/feel good category tonight was about two families sent on their vacations with NBC-issued video cameras to chronicle their experience. The first family, two parents and two little boys, flew from California to Hawaii. The other family, two parents and one little girl, drove from their home in Philadelphia to what the story referred to as “Pennsylvania Dutch Country.” The point of the story was to determine if driving to your vacation could be just as frustrating and wearying as flying in this age of tight airport security, lost luggage, and cancelled flights.

The California family had to wait seven hours for their flight to Hawaii, during which the boys watched videos and ate a lot of pizza, but eventually they were shown enjoying clear air and sparkling beaches on the big island.

The Pennsylvania family drove an hour through moderate traffic to arrive at (and here the mother is heard exclaiming in delight) Dutch Wonderland!

Dutch Wonderland is a conventional amusement park along Route 30 just outside the city of Lancaster. Lancaster (say it with me: LANK-a-stir) County is home to a large community of Amish, Mennonite, and other people of mostly German ancestry. Known in their own language as the Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch, they came to be called “Pennsylvania Dutch” because of a mishearing or misunderstanding of that last syllable. The misunderstanding is further promoted by businesses more concerned with making money from tourists than celebrating and educating people about a unique culture, that festoon their tourist traps with windmills, tulips, and wooden shoes. (And anyone who has read me for very long already knows how deep is my love for the Pennsylvania Germans. In fact, even if this is the first post you’re reading, you probably have a sense.)

The Philadelphia parents dutifully tote their camera around, beginning with a shot of the windmill at the entrance to Dutch Wonderland and then filming their daughter consuming large quantities of cotton candy and other amusement park food while waiting in line to go on the mechanical rides that can be found in any similar fun spot and have nothing to do with the culture of the area where the property happens to be. At the end the llittle girl is shown carrying a huge bag of popcorn and whining that she has a tummy ache.

The reporter at the end, tying the two families’ experience together, concludes that despite the hassles of travel, it was worth it to be able to get away for a while and have some fun.

I am having a hard time imagining a life so awful that a trip to Dutch Wonderland is a pleasant interlude.