I would go with the Hangmans noose as well. Interesting!!!

Come over and share in my Sunset!!! Happy WW!!!

*chuckling* I ‘m with Moksha Gren…. I thought of handcuffs at first….

Kinky Mark… kinky! *LOL*

“Now class, you’ll note today that there’s a new addition to the room. Over by the window is a handle that hangs just out of reach of the tallest of you. It’s been measured carefully. If you’re wondering what it’s for, let me explain: budget cuts mean that we either close the school, or reduce class sizes to the point where we can lay off the most junior staff. As a teacher who holds over a decade of tenure here, you may be assured that I strongly support the latter option. So, we have devised a fair and unbiased means of winnowing the class sizes down to an acceptable level. Each student must step up on the stool and pull the handle after entering their student ID in the nearby computer. Your current grade point average was used to create an inverse probability factor to determine whether or not the trap door beneath your feet will drop out from under you, causing you to plummet into the massive holding tank beneath the school. The dumber you are, the higher the chance of the trap door opening. Keep in mind there are sharks with frikkin’ laser beams attached to their heads in the tank.”

“But Mr. Jenkins, do you really expect us to believe that there’s a pool under the school infested with sharks who have laser beams attached to their heads, conjured up apparently overnight in a bid to reduce enrolment at this school so the newest staff members will be laid off — all just so you can keep your job?!”

“No, little Jimmy, I expect you to die.”

I LOVE that picture!

I’m trying to figure out if we’re looking at the actual ring or just the shadow of the ring cast on the outside of the window. Could be a Olympic-style ring like Anna guessed. Or a pulley system of some sort.

What an excellent mystery you’ve posed, Mark. And what a warped, warped world you live in, Simon.

Moksha – Looks like my long-winded comment overlapped yours.

It’s the actual ring, from inside the room. I used a 135mm telephoto, which makes everything in the picture seem closer together than it really is (oh boy, I feel a great how-to coming on).

Write from Karen – Interestingly, you are a NaNoWriMo participant. I was in 2002, and fell short by 10,000 words. My story was, as luck would have it, a murder mystery set in Hot Springs, where this bath house is located.

Small world.

Moksha, you’re only seeing the fringes of the world I live in. It’s the stuff I don’t reveal in the written word that may really scare some people. Scare them enough to go spelunking in a water drainage ditch.

Mark, I’m sure I’ll get around to writing something fictional some day. Finding the inspiration and carving out the time are the hard parts. Well, maybe the actual writing too.

Si – Now I really am scared. I mean…what would the warped chaos of your mind do to those of us who already go wading through dark caverns of our city’s runoff? Surely nothing so twisted as attempting to make a concrete mold of some random plastic cup that’s been stuck in a roadside drain…surely that is too much even for you to inflict on some poor mind.

I can’t believe I got that right?!?!?!

Thanks for the comment on my blog…I totally know what you mean…I am so grateful to be living here while I am doing my photoblog. We will be moving home at some point and so I wonder how my images will be different when faced with American suburbia. Hhhhmmm….food for thought. We shall see….

:) Have a good one Mark!

Moksha, now you’re going entire too far. That’s just plain ol’ wacky!

I don’t really have any intelligent comments to offer other than I really like the picture.

Susan and I visited Hot Springs, and this gym, when we had been dating for one year.