"Asp not what your country can do for you..."

Many years ago crowd is assembled in a large open area somewhere in the Far East. They all surround a man blowing gently on a flute. The ads had said that the man could make a snake rise up just by the power of his music.

And sure enough, there in front of the man, sits a large snake, uncoiling and rising slowly in time with the music.

The crowd oohs and ahhs and is entranced by the flutist and the magic of the music's effect on the snake.

At the back of the crowd stands a photographer, amazed at what he is seeing. He puts his camera on it's tripod, frames, focuses and pulls off a dozen photographs.

Closeups. Wide shots. The flutist. The snake. The crowd. The event.

Later that night he hurries back to his dark room sure that he's captured a miracle. He sees fame and fortune in his future.

On goes the red light. Out comes the film. In go the chemicals. Here come the images.

But wait. What is this? Where's the snake? What's the story...?

The man is playing.

The crowd is enthralled.

But the snake is sitting, unmoved, coiled tightly on the ground in front of the man and his flute.

Where's the miracle? What the hell...?

The crowd saw it and believed it. The photographer saw it and believed it. But the pictures told a different story. They revealed a different reality.

But after all, this happened in the analog days of yore.

It would probably be different now in the digital age.

One can only watch and hope.

Know what I mean...?