Rally Report VI: Mythbusters

OK, I was wrong yesterday. There will be at least one more report after this. Maybe two.

The rally started with a pre-pre-show at 10, which was all on-screen: they played all of the clips about the rally from both shows, plus some musical numbers from each show.

At noon, the pre-show started, with a visit from the Mythbusters. I know about this show. I've never seen it. I don't watch much television.

They decided to make use of the crowd in a couple of experiments. They said the 150,000 person sample size exceeded their previously largest sample size by about 150,000.

The first experiment involved the wave. They started a wave in the front and timed how long it took to get to the back. Then they pitted the women against the men. When they told the women to wave, I dutifully joined in. When they had the men wave, I passed. I had considered doing both, but that felt wrong. This felt right. I wish I had looked to see how my companions (especially P) had responded to that

The men's wave was two seconds faster. The mythbusters ignored a more interesting fact ~ it took almost twice as long for half the crowd to wave: 30 seconds for everyone; almost a minute for the gender-split waves.

They also did dueling waves, from front to back and back to front at the same time.

They had us make a series of sounds in response to cues. Laugh, evil laugh, and some others. I had to pass on the "cheek pop." There are, of course, three ways to get this sound. One is to pucker and puff out your cheeks and slap your cheek. Or you can pucker and puff out your cheeks and hit your mouth straight on. Or you can put a finger in your mouth and flick at your cheek from the inside.

I knew, no matter how I did it, it would fatally affect my makeup. I had to pass.

They also set up a seismometer to see if 150,000 people jumping simultaneously would cause a ripple. I hesitated, because of the heels, but I jumped. I probably didn't jump as hard as I could, but I jumped.

The seismometer reading was minimal. But the next day, there was a water main break right near the mall. I do wonder about that.

Looking back, I think it's interesting that I fell comfortably into the female role, really for the first time. For a long time, I didn't. Flying, I didn't at the start of the trip but by the end I think I did.

This time, it was more me than a role. I felt that I looked right, and I didn't have to think about every little thing as much as I had in the past. I was conscious of and accommodating to my uncomfortable friend, but I mostly was just another woman in a crowd. As I said, maybe that added to his discomfort.

That's not my problem. I was being myself, and loving it.

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A Couple of Notes from the Rally

I'm working on a fuller report. Honest. In the meantime....

During the pre-show, the guys from Mythbusters did a couple of experiments. One involved how long it would take to do a wave from the front of the crowd to the back. (Roughly thirty seconds, for the record.) Then they decided to time the women against the men. I thought about it for a second, and dutifully waved with the women and sat it out for the men.

As part of the show Colbert and Stewart sang a song. On the monitors there were words and a bouncing ball you could follow (does anyone remember them?). Except at one point Jon Stewart changed the words to "men and women and the genders in between". I felt that, not only was he talking to me, he correctly used the word "gender" instead of "sex".

I mentioned to the other Christine (she got her mask from huffingtonpost.com) that I bet it took her less time to put her face on than for me. She agreed. She also offered to shake hands and said "I'm Tisha." I said, "hi. I'm Christine." She said "you're staying with that, huh?" I smiled.

If you enlarge the photo, you can read my name tags.

I just had a thought.... Should I write P and say "admit it. I looked pretty darn good"?

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