I took my nephew to Hollywood for the first time. You know, for the ambiance and understated charm.
We went to Mann’s Chinese Theater, where he stepped in Donald Duck’s footsteps. 
Then we went to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum, where we found another daffy Donald.
It was a Madame Taussaud wax sculpture of Trump. Til I die I’ll believe that the initial rendering was the most sublime “fuck you” to a president ever created.
Rafi gazed for a few minutes at the terrific floating faucet (why have they not marketed this into an overpriced magic trick?)
Then he wandered to the sculpture. “Do you know who this is is?” I asked. “Yep,” Rafi said with the confidence of an 8-year-old about to show an old man how out of touch he was. “That’s the president. He doesn’t like us.”
My mind raced, then reeled. How did he come to that conclusion? Grown-ups? The TV? Friends? Viral videos? And what do you tell a child who suspects something like that? The truth?
So I did what most parents likely do. I walked him back to the faucet. “Isn’t that cool? How do you think they do that”
We walked out, me dizzied by either the offhandedness of the comment, the heat, or both. We were met by a group of marchers, carrying hand-painted signs and shouting in Spanish. and bullhorns. I do not know what they were saying, but had a hunch. Police escorted them across the red light, a phalanx of signage, singing, searing. When they passed and the light allowed, we began to cross. By now, I’m literally afraid to let go his shoulder.
Without looking up, he says “What does ‘protest’ mean?” My clutch melted into a mini massage-squeeze, mini back scratch. Then just a hand on a shoulder.
It means we’re going home, kid, where truths can be discoveries, not realizations. To Rafi, the week’s Factslaps
- Your mobile phone has more computing power than the computers used for the Apollo 11 moon landing.
- The winner of the first modern Olympic Marathon stopped at a tavern mid-race for a glass of wine.
- People buy more when they’re hungry, even when shopping for non-edible goods.
- Despite being a relatively small and densely populated country, The Netherlands is the world’s second biggest exporter of food.
- The original Pac-Man has a safe spot where the ghosts will never get you.
- Ancient Romans running for office wore a distinctive toga called the “toga candida.” Hence the word “candidate.”
- Leonardo DiCaprio’s haircut from Titanic was once outlawed by the Taliban.
