(Time for) Zotz!

Heliocentric XV

The sky filled with a yellow orange spectrum and the colors hit the side of the Wonder Wheel. Seagulls wandered along the shore, picking up food that the tides had washed in. After the sun was fully up they wandered towards the boardwalk, walking across the tracks made by the sand cleaning machines.

What’s this? He bent down to pick something from the sand. It has a little hole — like you’d wear it as an amulet. Occult looking symbols on the big letters which look like zTz. If it wasn’t cheap plastic I’d think it something quite serious to someone.

Let me see, she said, and photographed it with her cell phone. A minute later, with the help of an image search engine she had an answer.

It’s “Zotz!” — a 1962 fantasy/comedy directed by William Castle, about a man obtaining magical powers from a god of an ancient civilization. With it he could cause time to go into slow motion by saying “Zotz!”. The coin was a promotional novelty given to kids at theaters. Wow.

They walked north along the boardwalk and then through the Russian neighborhood of Brighton Beach towards the subway.

This neighborhood always amazes me, he said. The people I see on the streets who are my age look like my parents — I mean their styles, clothes — they look like people from another era.