I hope I won’t look like a carny’s mark by linking to this article. For Brooks Barnes, the upcoming movie Nightmare Alley might feel like a biopic, except his experiences as a kid growing up among the carnies was less of a horror show and more of a wild ride with ups and downs. “When I signed up to lip-sync ‘How Will I Know’ for the fifth-grade talent show, another teacher called me “unpleasantly abnormal” and sent me to the school psychologist. (Their loss. I would have killed it.) To them, I was the sideshow freak. Among the carnival crowd, it was the opposite. I was accepted, even celebrated.” NYT: See the Real Live Man Who Grew Up in a Carnival. (This is a gift article. No strings attached. It like doing the ring toss with hula hoop. It’s a three card monte game where you always find the queen. You can shoot out the red star with a single bb. It’s as easy as the ping pong toss but you don’t have to bring home the goldfish. The bottom of the rubber duck will reveal the top prize, guaranteed. Your mallet will always ring the bell. The funnel cakes won’t make you throw up. The cotton candy is sugar-free. And the candied apples are all from this decade! Just start whacking, the moles don’t stand a chance.)