I went to a kid’s birthday party last week at Celebration Station, one of those Dave & Buster’s/Chuck E. Cheese’s type places where there are tons of video games and noisy, flashy crap for kids, and they basically print money by having kids turn in tickets that cost them $50 to acquire for a $5 toy. I’m too damn old, and too damn sensory-screwed-up, for places like that. I felt like a used-up piece of Silly Putty by the time I left. Too much noise!

I don’t get the appeal of places like that. But then again, I don’t get Disneyworld either.