Britain and America are, as William Gibson has written, a subtle mirror-world reflection of one another. There is a complex language of similarity between these half-separated, half-remerged cultures, and it provides a shared language of difference for all to enjoy. When I emigrated from Britain to America, then, I experienced the many charming embraces and disarming rejections offered by these historical bonds.
But two questions stood out from the very beginning.
First: given that America is so riven by racism that it invites an annihilating bloodbath of justice, why do white people cling mindlessly to the doomed bonds of privilege? Second, what the fuck is the deal with Chuck E Cheese?
The idea is two-fold: So that no one can find a Chuck E. Cheese costume in a dumpster, and also so that children never see the disembodied head of Chuck E. "Our policy at Chuck E. Cheese's, for when the stores operate, is to never bring that head out by itself when the store's operating," he says. "Because that can be very traumatic for a child."
Dahlke says that destroying Chuck E. is usually done "out of sight." In the case of Oak Park, Chuck E.'s head was slated to return to a warehouse in Kansas where games and robots are typically shipped following a store's closure. "But those employees went rogue and took that outside … they should not have been doing that," Dahlke says. He is quick to add that most Chuck E. Cheese's locations don't keep sledgehammers around, and they appeared in Oak Lawn to break down old furniture. Usually, he says, Chuck E.'s head isn't bashed in. Instead, stores will slice it in half or otherwise "find a way to make sure that it's not recognizable."
That feeling when the autobiography of Marion Zimmer Bradley's daughter is only the second-most disturbing thing you read this week.
Previously: For sale: (1) Chuck E. Cheese's animatronic band; Millennials blamed for death of Chuck E. Cheese's animatronic band
