I've never been able to look at party clowns the same way since reading Gene Weingarten's long, too-revealing, can't-look-away article about The Great Zucchini in the Washington Post.

Fortunately, Bill Goodwin's first-person tale of birthday party clowndom is more self-aware and hence, less harrowing. And it does a great service to parents in LA by exposing the Bouncy Castle Hegemony, whose insidious reach extends like giant air hoses across the entire city. Makes me glad we have birthday parties inside, frankly. Though we're still at the mercy of Manhattan's ruthless street fair mafia, whose tube sock, crepe, and whimsical hat-selling minions thwart our weekend driving plans.

On Being A Clown [doublethink magazine via dt reader david]