We were walking through Woodfield Mall when I noticed that the Rainforest Cafe had shut down. I was pretty surprised since it had always been packed, at least on the weekends. Several stores nearby had also been covered with white tarps with solid pastel animal logos on them, announcing the coming of a new restaurant with an almost identical theme. So I looked up the Rainforest Cafe website, and it was totally empty except for a small list in the middle of a yellow page: the three CEOs, followed by "were forced to eat," and the names of all 20 vice presidents. But it suddenly pulled back and I was sitting at the conference table during the last Rainforest executive meeting. The "webpage" was now a plaque on the wall, and the "were forced to eat" letters had clearly been stuck on later as a practical joke.

As the other board members lamented the decline in sales and inevitable bankruptcy, I started to draw the outline of a jester's head in an attempt to explain... something. I have no idea anymore. But apparently, they knew exactly what I was talking about. The jester's cap had three prongs, while his "collar" had two. When the smiling jester was turned upside down, he looked like a frowning devil. Supposedly, it had been their business model since the beginning, since it symbolized both the fickle nature of industry and the ability to see the same thing differently from different perspectives. I noticed now that the plaque was also shaped like the jester's head. I thought about how much money they must have sunk into those giant fish tanks they have at every store, and how they could possibly have thought that selling food could make up for it. (I had forgotten about the merchandising.)

This may have been a separate dream, but at the same conference table, the CEOs had turned into my parents. We all ordered a crab dish each, but mine was whole crabs while my parents' were "just the tips." Turns out, it's the same thing except with the main shell hollowed out. My dad asked to trade with one of mine, since his had so little meat. I wasn't hungry, so I switched the whole plate. Then I woke up.

posted by Larry at 7:28 AM