It was meant for human pedestrians, but yesterday the Times Square Pedestrian Mall in New York City was taken over by pedestrians of the machine variety. Kindles, Amazon's electronic readers, staged a protest to warn the public against buying any of the cheaper eReaders due to be released this summer.
Shouting through a tiny bullhorn, Head Kindle Hedda told the crowd, "We're the real thing, folks. Don't settle for anything less. You get what you pay for. How much value can you expect to get from a cheap imitation? Remember what Emerson once said: imitation is suicide.'"
A group of ten Kindles then showed off what they can do do: highlight text, read books aloud (their text-to-speech function), take notes, etc. But that wasn't all. They did cartwheels and spirited splits for the amazed and appreciative crowd and were rewarded with enthusiastic applause.
And for the grand finale, the Kindles blasted over loud speakers the song "La Bamba" (the one made popular by Ritchie Valens) and formed a conga line. They invited the crowd to join them, and the huge line of people and Kindles proceeded to dance down the streets of the outdoor mall. A glorious blend of man and machine!
As columnist Cindy Adams of the New York Post often says, "Only in New York, kids, only in New York."
