Platial | Who and What's Nearby
Platial | Who and What's Nearby
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See, La'ie... La'ie's kind of weird. It's mostly Mormon, and it's where Brigham-Young University is, and they've set up this phenomenally successful Polynesian Cultural Center to make money for the university. So you've got an odd situation where a bunch of Mormons have become the curators of a culture that died out, to make money for their church. So La'ie has some weird influences. The mormon population means the grocery stores don't sell liquor, and everything, even the beaches, are closed on Sundays. But the Polynesian influence means... Well, here's what the La'ie McDonalds looks like:
Inside it's big and weird and shaded, and looks more like a fancy restaurant than a fast food franchise. There are lots of vitrines (plexiglass museum display boxes) inside, full of Polynesian artifacts like the instruments they'd play ancient hula music on, and a fountain in the back. And, apparently, this McDonalds does karaoke.
I wasn't in La'ie for even an hour before I got missionaries trying to pimp their good friend God to me. "Our friend Jesus thinks you're really cute." (Note: Not a literal quote.) They're clever in La'ie; they send attractive young women after the young guys. I found myself talking to a girl from Japan and another from Nevada for a while before I read their nametags more closely (I figured they were guides with the tour group I was near), and realized they weren't actually really friendly, outgoing people who though I looking interesting and wanted to be friends.
The Altruism Trick makes me sad. When people act like they're interested in me, and act like they want to be my friends... and then I find out they're doing it because they want to sell me something, whether it's an idea or a product... it makes me sad, and it makes me wary, and it discredits their whole cause to me.
(Gilligan's Island was filmed on O'ahu, or rather, on Coconut Island, which is off the coast of O'ahu on the Windward Side. Coconut Island is a biological research center, and my coworker who's a biologist got to go on a tour there. "A three hour tour?" I was quick to ask him.)
See, La'ie... La'ie's kind of weird. It's mostly Mormon, and it's where Brigham-Young University is, and they've set up this phenomenally successful Polynesian Cultural Center to make money for the university. So you've got an odd situation where a bunch of Mormons have become the curators of a culture that died out, to make money for their church. So La'ie has some weird influences. The mormon population means the grocery stores don't sell liquor, and everything, even the beaches, are closed on Sundays. But the Polynesian influence means... Well, here's what the La'ie McDonalds looks like:
Inside it's big and weird and shaded, and looks more like a fancy restaurant than a fast food franchise. There are lots of vitrines (plexiglass museum display boxes) inside, full of Polynesian artifacts like the instruments they'd play ancient hula music on, and a fountain in the back. And, apparently, this McDonalds does karaoke.
I wasn't in La'ie for even an hour before I got missionaries trying to pimp their good friend God to me. "Our friend Jesus thinks you're really cute." (Note: Not a literal quote.) They're clever in La'ie; they send attractive young women after the young guys. I found myself talking to a girl from Japan and another from Nevada for a while before I read their nametags more closely (I figured they were guides with the tour group I was near), and realized they weren't actually really friendly, outgoing people who though I looking interesting and wanted to be friends.
The Altruism Trick makes me sad. When people act like they're interested in me, and act like they want to be my friends... and then I find out they're doing it because they want to sell me something, whether it's an idea or a product... it makes me sad, and it makes me wary, and it discredits their whole cause to me.
(Gilligan's Island was filmed on O'ahu, or rather, on Coconut Island, which is off the coast of O'ahu on the Windward Side. Coconut Island is a biological research center, and my coworker who's a biologist got to go on a tour there. "A three hour tour?" I was quick to ask him.)
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