From: pem@Minsk.DoCS.UU.SE (Per-Erik Martin)
Subject: Re: San Diego Responds to Potential Dane Invasion
Organization: Student
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 13:17:02 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.021616.24329@crash.cts.com> rcf@pnet01.cts.com (Bob Forsythe) writes:

>     At the beginning of the year, Lego Systems, Inc. announced that they were
>considering San Diego as a possible site for an American Lego World.

Lucky you...

>I ride fearlessly into the valley of the shadow of mixed metaphors, crying
>havoc and letting slip the guard dogs of alarmism, alerting San Diego to the
>creeping menace of...
>  Lego World!
>Back in February, I warned readers of a Danish plot to capture the city and
>turn it into a "theme Park."

Huh? I thought San Diego *was* a theme Park... ;-)

>                          I see.  So you're proposing LOOKS KINDA LIKE (BUT
>REALLY ISN'T) LEGO WORLD.

Why do words like "Disneyland", "Magic Kingdom", "EuroDisney" pop up when I
read this?

>As for Lego World's red-white-and blue credentials, Graf (the woman from
>Norton) read in the Boston papers that the original Legoland is long on
>European style (cute tableaux) but short on American values (rides with high
>vom-O-meter readings).

You can get very high vom-O-meter readings from other things than wild rides...

>       Now folks, I reprint this (without permission, written by Peter Rowe of
>the San Diego Union-Tribune) because Legos are one of the more insidious plots
>Europeans have foisted upon this country.  The things multiply, they move from
>room to room, they hurt when you step on them, and the kids go beserk when you
>step on them.  This is an obvious example of how Europeans are determined to
>ruin American feet (Italian shoes being the other) through the introduction of
>seemingly harmless objects.  Well I, for one, won't stand for it.  When I send
>my 1 dollar contribution to Bill Clinton, it will contain a letter demanding
>that he denounce the Lego plot and vow to keep America safe from this terrible
>menace.

Yeah, of course the kids go berserk when you ruin hours of engineering work.
I think it looks like you have a discipline problem, not a Lego problem.
I grew up with Lego and was never allowed to let them slip outside my room,
which was perfectly ok with me, I didn't want them to. For one thing, stupid
grown-ups would step on them, like they were blind or something, and for
another it was very annoying when another Grand Building Project couldn't be
completed because a cruicial part had mysteriously disappeared (or gotten
crushed under some blind grown-up...)
Lego is an ingenious invention, although I must admit it's lost a lot of the
appeal nowadays. In my time we only had those small knobby pieces and had
to build everything ourselves (which was the fun part; nothing I ever built
survived more than a day, I immediately tore it down and started all over
again). Nowadays it seems you buy three special pieces, snap them together
and get a space shuttle...
But apart from that:
Kids who grow up with Lego stands a good chance to end up as an engineer or
why not in the computer business.
Kids who grow up prefering "american values" like high vom-O-meter rides
probably end up selling tickets for high vom-O-meter rides...       :-)

--
 |\/|\/|\/| Per-Erik Martin,
 |  |  |/\| Department of Computer Systems, Uppsala University,
 |/\|  |  | Email: pem@minsk.DoCS.UU.SE
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic