From Harper’s Weekly Review:
After Saudi Arabia’s recent announcement that it would open an oil-themed extreme park and resort as part of a national rebranding effort, a former Saudi intelligence officer said that the country’s crown prince was a “psychopath” who once planned to murder his own uncle with a poisoned ring made in Russia.
“…an oil-themed extreme park and resort…” sparks my darkly comic imagination. Which is where my imagination stalls, at a spark. What the fuck could be an “oil-themed extreme park” etc? Riding down oil chutes? A ride based on Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, peopled by animated oil workers and their rigs? And the delighted customers view all this from boats floating in an oil sea?
Meanwhile, I hope that Saudi intelligence officer is safely secured, although his revelation about the psychopathy of the crown prince is hardly a surprise. Yeah, the Russian poisoned ring is sort of, you know, Bros Grimm. That’s fun.