antiques, pleasant surprises, and dashed dreams.

i like watching "the antiques roadshow". i dont know why exactly.

on the show normal folk (you know, normal like the normal santa clause looking guy in the picture above) bring their old wares and oddities to show to some expert. this supposed expert talks about how lovely the peice is and how hes only seen one other in such good shape.

and the person usually has some story about the peice, like, "my great grandfather brought this back from chiner and we were told it was from the ming dynasty".


i like seeing the antique peices and i like hearing their stories. but most of all, i like the drama.

the expert knows what its worth and he leads the person on asking questions and talking about the rarity. sometimes he'll challenge their story. "im sorry to inform you, this was probably not given to your great great grandmother by the king of persia, because its a fake made in boston at the middle of 20th century".

then after all this build-up, he eventually tells the poor soul what its worth.

then it happens.

you look at the persons face and you know, you just know whether it was more or less than they expected. you can see it in there eye...the joyous surprise or the painful dissappointment. but regardless of the look or their feeling, they always say the same thing..."oh my thats great", or "oh, well isnt that something".

they never say "shit-balls! i thought it was worth more than that" or "youre a forking liar!"

why is that?

Its like its socially acceptable to be pleasantly surprised, but youre an idiot if youre disappointedly surprised, so you supress it.

weird.