They unveiled "the world's largest pinata" in South Philadelphia today, and promised to bash it open with a wrecking ball, spilling a few tons of candy down on the vacant, decrepit, garbage strewn, cracked-concrete lot at the corner of Broad and Washington, in the process setting a Guinness world record. However, it was called off when the organizers (Carnival Cruises) and a small contingent of Philadelphia motorcycle cops determined -- according to the Daily Pennsylvanian -- that "the breaking would cause a surge of running to grab the pinata's contents." (You don't say?!)So when the loudspeakered announcement came after a few hours of build-up (and the filming of a Carnival commercial -- the whole event seemed like a stunt/scam to draw a big crowd for their nefarious advertising purposes) that there would be no candy spilling from the guts of the six-story pinata, and that the several thousand onlookers (including many disappointed children and their angry parents) needed to leave the area immediately, a few hundred people began rushing toward the pinata, booing and yelling "Push it over!" The two dozen or so motorcycle cops then formed a protective ring around the pinata, although the one I photographed didn't seem concerned enough about a potential riot to put out his cigarette. Indeed, the crowd quickly dispersed without the need for tear gas or rubber bullets. This, I lamented, as such a scene beneath a six-story, brightly-hued pinata may have made for one of the best photographs ever.
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