Flash Mob, What a Feeling

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of fun and thanks, and that all is well in your world!  Most people are going to be headed out for some shopping in the next few days, and the nation is clearly well divided on how we all feel about the touchy topic of the flash mob.

No, it's not a bunch of hoodlums and thugs, pulling down their trousers and waving their doodles.  No.  As seen on tv's Modern Family and in this video from upstate New York, a flash mob is a well-rehearsed singin'-and-swingin' and gettin' Merry like Christmas production number, spontaneously performed by dozens or hundreds of people who have rehearsed it for months and have been called to perform by email or text or whatever.

You notice in the mall scenes, all malls look alike?  Peggy and I like to go Christiana Mall up in Delaware, but it's not as if there is a certain Delawarity to that mall. Although I understand that Christine O'Donnell has taken a part-time job at Hickory Farms for the holidays, so we'll see.  Point is, from Maine to California, all mall food courts have the same chain eateries.  One Potato Two and Mr Pizza and Wok With Me and Popcorn Shack and Yogurt Hut and Cookie Cookie Cookie are businesses that each gross over a billion dollars a year per outlet, doling out carbs and calories as fast as seventeen-year-old hands can!  And we love them all.

Have you ever:  seen a flash mob in action? Participated in a flash mob?  Known anyone who has seen or participated in a flash mob?  Had Christine O'Donnell accost you in an atrium, handing out gouda wedges on toothpicks?

I sort of hope I get to see one one time.  We did go to Golden Ring Mall one time and there in the center court was tv's Jeff Conaway - Kenickie from Grease! Bobby from Taxi! - acting as emcee for a local cheerleading competition.   I was impressed by his kindness to the kids and his ability to relate to an audience, most of whom were carrying plastic shopping bags and puzzled expressions because a guy who looked just like Kenickie was down there talkin' to the girls from Kenwood High School!

But I'm fairly certain that someone paid Conaway to be there, and that it was not a spontaneous mob.  I'm hoping to see the real thing this Christmas, and I hope I know the song they're singing.  I might just join in!