Child Destroys Fan While Researching Floating Scarves

Sent last night’s edition super late, because I went out to actually meet up with a human being for drinks and then came home and went to bed, before awakening with a start and dashing off a quick note to all of you. It was a stark reminder of how much this nightly newsletter has benefitted from our collective solitude, and I honestly don’t know what will happen to it once we all agree to spend time together again. I’m trying not to think about it, and I am at the very least committed to doing this newsletter thing for a solid year—which is sometime this month. How much of The Daily Kina is about Kina, and how much is it about the pandemic? Let’s find out! Sooner or later!

In any case, today’s edition: Laurea woke up this morning to find Kina in her room, staring down with concern at her fan. Upon closer observation, Laurea then noted that Kina’s fan had ceased to function. Further investigation showed that the fan had consumed one of Kina’s cheap little capes1 and had hopelessly entangled it into its own motor, burning itself out.2 I found this surprising, because the fan was kind of expensive, and you would imagine that a company that celebrates its well-made fans might at least test them to ensure they could outmatch a cheap polyester cape.

I digress.

Kina was at least forthcoming about the cause of the fan’s demise. She had been “playing air” with the cape and fan, in an effort to reproduce the best museum exhibit she has ever seen, in the kids’ play area at the New York Hall of Science. In this exhibit, kids could grab one of a number of colorful chiffon scarves and place it into a little transparent chimney with a (well-protected) fan at its base. The fan would twirl the scarf up the wind tunnel and into the air, where it then floated down charmingly onto Kina’s head. She spent many minutes throwing scarves into this chimney, which was well worth the price of admission.

The exhibit clearly made an impression on her, because she now uses the fan for many kinds of science experiments, including periodic investigations of the Bernoulli Principle (a beautiful confluence of fans and balloons, two of her great passions). The problem is, we do not have a bunch of tiny chiffon scarves, so when Kina “plays air”, she is placing much larger pieces of fabric over the fan. The result is less fanciful, but at least mildly entertaining in a circus-tent way, until it’s not, because your cape breaks your precious fan. I have now ordered a new fan, and it occurs to me now that I ought to order some chiffon scarves, if I want it to last.

Or maybe they should just make better fans.

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