DIVERSITY, PHOENIX STYLE

A sign on a business The Kid and I passed:

I don’t know, does it make you want to be nice to them?

On an unrelated note: A friend of mine sent me this picture of a toy he says he found on the shelf of a discount/closeout store back east, noting that he was shocked to see the kid on the box flashing gang signs:

He says he later found it online and posted a question about it, and that two suppliers replied that they were dropping it from their inventory. I’m relieved of course, but honestly I’m too naïve to have recognized those as gang signs; I would have thought the kid was just gesturing his satisfaction at scoring an awesome new wooden locomotive and steamroller.

On yet another unrelated note: Something has been on my mind since the other day when I happened to hear, on the radio, Kenny Loggins singing “Danger Zone” from the 1986 Top Gun soundtrack. Now I’ve heard that song way too many times over the years, but I don’t think that the full insipidity of the chorus ever struck me before:

Highway to the Danger Zone

Gonna take you right into the Danger Zone

[repeat with emphasis on different words]

For now, let’s set aside the fact whatever Cole Porter it was who wrote these lyrics rhymed the word “Zone” with the word “Zone.” Let’s focus, instead, on the content—on what the song is telling us. It’s telling us that the highway to the Danger Zone is going to take us right into the Danger Zone.

When I complained about this to The Wife, she wearily suggested that in her opinion, the lines are discrete from each other, not intended as a single sentence but as a repetition for effect. And maybe she’s right. But I still question whether “Danger Zone” represents the highest achievement of the American songwriter’s art.