“So, step right up! Come and witness the bizarre and unbelievable feats of elephants, tigers, and monkeys, the glitter and spectacle of the American circus. See the thrills, the beauty, the excitement and laughter that happen when the circus comes to town.”

Circus Vargas is in San Luis Obispo.  Having recently read and seen Water for Elephants, I was thrilled when Katie and Jo invited me to join them for opening night. I looked forward to the circus all day, with visions of elephants, lions, tigers, and freak shows with two headed monsters, women with 5 breasts, and other bizarre circus acts. I bought my ticket early; $25 bucks for the bleacher seats. With ticket prices ranging from $25-$100, the circus ain’t cheap.

cir·cus/ˈsərkəs/Noun

1. A traveling company of acrobats, trained animals, and clowns that gives performances, typically in a large tent, in a series of different places.

I arrived to the circus pre-party at 7pm, with Katie looking at me, shaking her head.

“There’s no animals at the circus.”

“What?”

“Seriously, there are no animals in the circus.”

“How can it be called a circus without any animals?”

I was crushed. I had even downloaded ‘8mm’ on my iphone so I could take vintage circus videos..  How can you call it a circus without any animals? Not even one! The main act of the night was the guy balancing a ladder on his chin! After about 45 minutes inside the hot, smelly tent, I began plotting my escape.

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

I ducked out of the tent, grabbed my bicycle and rode away as fast as I could peddle.

As I rode home, I thought back to the days when the circus was one of America’s main attractions. By the turn of the 20th century, there were over 100 circuses traveling the country at a time, performing shows with over 12,000 spectators. People waited all year for the circus to come to town. It was the biggest day of the year!

In fact, the circus is even responsible for the invention of hamburgers. In 1892, Frank Menches, while selling food concessions, ran out of link sausages so he asked his assistants to form ground sausage into patties and sell them as sandwiches. The hamburger was born.

Unfortunately, the circus also has a dark side of animal cruelty, which is the reason why many circuses no longer employ animals in their acts..

But, as my good friend Ali said “Circus equals animals. Period”.

Where do you buy books? I buy books at Barnes and Noble. Its conveniently across the street from my office and there are thousands of titles to choose from.

In Sunday’s newspaper, there was an article, Book-selling era in SLO closes with shop, discussing the closing of The Novel Experience.  It read  “Over the last 40 years, San Luis Obispo had a wide variety of booksellers: Leon’s, Norwoods, Gaby’s, Bookland, Paper Reads, The Earthling. All of them now closed… This marks the end of a tradition of more than 130 years of independent new book selling in San Luis Obispo.”

Reading it made me think about the effects of my actions; no longer having an independent bookstore in SLO. And the truth of it is, if less people went to Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com to buy their books, the Novel Experience, and other small shops like it, would be in business.

I know this isn’t ground breaking news for anyone.. With BIG box stores and chains popping up all over SLO, but we choose what businesses to support, which in turn decides the fate of our city.  What do our daily seemingly insignificant choices mean for the bigger picture?  We certainly aren’t the happiest town in America because of Banana Republic, Ross, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, or Walmart.

Yesterday I was in need of a new book, so instead of walking across the street to Barnes & Noble, I went to The Novel Experience. They have an eclectic selection of books, some with handwritten recommendations attached. Due to closing at the end of the month, all their books are 30% off.

Just returned from my neighborhood self-serve frozen yogurt shop stewing over the large and obnoxious tip jar now placed on the counter at the check out. Really? I am supposed to tip someone for the privilege of making my own tasty frozen treat. What does the clerk do to earn my tip? He didn’t provide me with a sample, in fact, he didn’t even ask me if I wanted a sample. All a clerk at a self service frozen yogurt place does is weigh my yogurt and take my money, no tip earned, no tip given. Am I right or am I just cheap?

A good friend of mine recently informed me that it is against the law to be stinky in SLO County Libraries.. One step into SLO City Library and you’ll realize this ridiculous law isn’t being inforced… P-U!

According to anthropologist Louis Leakey, body odor was responsible for early man’s survival…most predators avoided feasting on humans because our body odor was “too repugnant”. One step in the library and you’ll be a believer of this theory! Thankfully, the Egyptians were the first to popularize the idea of applying scent to the armpits, they used cinnamon and other spices.. scents you can still find today in some of the most popular deodorants.

Over at the Granada we have a small group of dedicated regulars. Some stop in for a panini everyday on their lunch break, others sit at the bar for a glass of wine and a chat, and then there’s that guy, THE regular, the one who doesn’t miss a day, who comes in faithfully to share his story of the day with not only the staff, but every patron in the place. Sweet, harmless, but a handful. On the night of my birthday he came in with tubs of homemade gelato..  Which was really a very kind gesture… until he starting plopping it into customers wine glasses!  Cote du Rhone and chocolate peanut butter sorbet.. not a good pairing. 

If you follow me on Twitter you know that one of my newest guilty pleasures is people watching from the office…our quaint and quiet block of Morro St. has unusually become a buzz with characters lately. One in particular, whom we will call Building Borracho #1, has entertained us on more than a few occasions with his drunken debauchery. Our first encounter with the Building Borracho #1 was about a month ago when he stumbled into the office mid-morning, reeking of alcohol, and introduced himself to us with a five minute hand-shake. All I have to say is thank god for anti-bacterial hand soap! Since then he has been our uninvited guest on numerous occasions. About a week later we were in an office meeting and I looked outside to see the Building Borracho #1 riding his bike and yelling to someone in the building—then CRASH! He ran into a nice gentleman decked out in a suit, riding his bike presumably to the office for a day of work…I still crack up when I think about it… and how the gentleman rode off shaking his head in disgust. By this time a few weeks had passed and we had gotten used to him popping into the office, asking the same questions as the day before, and being completely oblivious at our hints to leave…our last sighting of him he was in a neck brace and hospital gown, running around the building like a mad-man. Turns out that other tenants in the building are just as annoyed as us, and one decided to do something about it…

Surely, more encounters to come…