The Royal Nonesuch

Mark Twain, in the classic book, Huckleberry Finn writes about two men Huck meets while rafting down the Mississippi with his friend, Jim, who also happens to be a runaway slave. These two men, assume the identities of the Duke and the Dauphin and perpetrate scams among people of the various towns they pass. One of the scams, the Royal Nonesuch, entails one of the two dressing as an ass for about half the town.

The participants are then so embarrassed at being taken by these two, they decide to talk up the show so the other half will go for the second show. Sure enough, the second show sells out necessitating a third which the townsfolk will use to extract their revenge.

Little do the townsfolk know but this is exactly what the hucksters intend for them to do. They show up, pay their admission and prepare to beat the Duke & Dauphin and retrieve their money. Alas, the pair are long gone.

Why this came to mind is related to the train wreck that is Charlie Sheen and his Torpedo of Truth Tour that is currently on its second night of  the tour. One would imagine Twitter and other Social Media has ruined this opportunity for Mr. Sheen to perpetrate this scam upon America, but no, sadly, even when confronted with the evidence that Sheen is just another huckster in a different age, they still attend and berate those who see the show for what it is. A hot mess masquerading as theatre.

These are the same individuals who, when faced with the ever mounting evidence that Mr. Obama has plunged our nation into a morass of monumental proportions, will vote for him and denounce anyone who speaks against him as racists intent on restoring a white man to the Oval Office.

Blame the other guy! For two years Mr. Obama has complained that he inherited the mess we are currently in. He neglects to add that as President, he has spent more than any other President in history with little to no effect on the economy except to line the pockets of his supporters in the unions.  He ran on a policy of transparency yet has held up countless FOIA requests.

Mr. Sheen has actually done more to stimulate the economy by singlehandedly (and admittedly) pouring $2 million dollars into the prostitution industry. I have no guess how much he has poured into the illegal narcotics industry. Sheen has decided to blame the people paying him nearly 2 million dollars an episode for the troubles he finds himself in these days.

As I'm writing this, I see the reviews coming in from Chicago are much better than those from Detroit 24 hours ago. I wonder how the Duke and Dauphin would be preparing for the next show.