Mountain 'o mail

After any school break, comes an avalanche of mail. Magazines and newspapers make up the bulk of the mass. I now know for certain that I am Time Magazine's Person of the Year. But unanticipated items also emerge from the stack. My favorite from this break's batch is a catalog of prom and party items. Maybe they think librarians want to have more fun? In any case, I found myself fascinated by the variety of entire environments that can be purchased to transform a school gym into a themed paradise. A prom committee can pick among themes such as nautical, tropical, Polynesian, "Asian" (generic, I guess), disco, at the hop, the O.K. Corral, Las Vegas, Broadway, Hollywood, French Quarter, 1960s (complete with peace symbol), 1950s, the ocean floor, Paris, Venice (including a gondola), ancient Egypt, Central Park, and so on. These environments are largely formed from objects called "standees," life-sized cardboard replicas that are free-standing. A large number of standees are for picture taking. These are the things where you poke your head through a hole and come out looking like you are driving a 1950s car, playing a ukelele on the beach, or resting your mermaid body on a rock. Just think -- for a mere $49.99, you and your date can become, um, ... bowling pins.