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lifestyle TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2014 FEATURES Daredevil Nik Wallenda walks a tightrope between buildings in Chicago, Illinois. — AP/AFP photos Two of his previous televised tightrope walks - over the brink of Niagara Falls in 2012 and across the Little Colorado River Gorge in 2013 - drew about 13 million viewers each. The Discovery Channel hopes to capture an elusive real-time audience in the DVR era. The network plans to keep the almost-live telecast of Wallenda’s progress on viewers’ TV screens even during the commer- cials, using a “double box” that will show advertisements and Wallenda simultaneously. The Marina City towers have been on screens - Steve McQueen chased a fugitive around the west tower’s corkscrew parking ramp in “The Hunter” - and graced the album cover of Wilco’s 2002 “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” Once-in-a-lifetime Hours before the tightrope walk, Scott Jensen of Schaumburg, a Chicago suburb, waited to watch the spec- tacle with his 15-year-old son, Matthew, and Matthew’s friend Tommy Demaret, also 15. They were bundled up and eating sandwiches while seated on a concrete planter with a nearly straight-overhead view of the high wire. “I think anybody who does something like this is crazy and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it,” Scott Jensen said. Cynthia Garner traveled 90 miles from Belvidere, Illinois, with her husband Johnny. he tightrope is waiting for Nik Wallenda in Chicago. blindfolded between the two Marina City towers - Chicago “I’m scared of heights,” Garner said looking up at the The 35-year-old high-wire artist - great-grandson of landmarks with Hollywood credits. At around 6:40 pm, just wire. “The feeling I feel when I look up there is scared for TKarl Wallenda of the famous Flying Wallendas circus minutes before the anticipated start of his high-wire feat, his life,” she said. “I’m scared for his life.” Journalists cover- family - plans to perform two nail-biting walks, without a Wallenda, who has been preparing in Florida, said the ing Sunday’s event signed waivers relinquishing their right net or harness, that will be televised Sunday to millions of chilly conditions in Chicago would not stall him. to claim emotional distress if they witness a catastrophe. A viewers around the world. The Discovery Channel will use “Yes there’s some wind, yes it’s cool, but it’s not unbear- year before Wallenda was born, his great-grandfather fell Daredevil Nik a 10-second delay for the broadcast, allowing producers able,” he said. Months of preparations have meant helicop- to his death during a tightrope stunt in Puerto Rico. He Wallenda gets a to cut away if Wallenda falls. ters lifting cable to the rooftops, road closures and clear- was 73. Wallenda says after Chicago he wants to recreate a hug after walking The daredevil’s challenge starts just after sunset when ances from the Federal Aviation Administration and US 1,200-foot-long high-wire walk made famous by his great- a tightrope the skyscrapers up and down the Chicago River will be lit Coast Guard. Residents of Marina City have been asked grandfather. Karl Wallenda’s stunt at Tallulah Falls Gorge in between up and sparkling. First, he will walk uphill at a 19-degree not to use laser pointers, camera flashes or drones that Georgia included two headstands on the high wire. “Life is buildings. angle from the Marina City west tower to the top of a sky- could interfere. Even grilling has been prohibited. on the wire,” Karl Wallenda once said. “Everything else is scraper on the other side of the river. Next, he’ll walk Meanwhile, Wallenda has practiced the walk in Florida. just waiting.” — AP In this Saturday, March 8, 2014 photo, Mohamed Mustafa, right, clips the mane of a donkey as his father, A man who sells plastic house wares from the back of a donkey cart leads his donkey to a makeshift barbershop Mahmoud,Donkey left, holds an ear at their makeshift barbershopbarber in Cairo, Egypt. — AP photos groomsfor a haircut by donkey barberCairo’s Mohamed Mustafa and his five year-old animals son, Mustafa, right. n the shadow of Cairo’s medieval aqueduct, to get his horse’s monthly trim. Mohamed Mustafa teaches his 5-year-old son Mohamed charges between 20 and 30 Ithe family’s trade, one shear at a time. Egyptian pounds ($3 to $5) per customer, with Mohamed is one of Cairo’s donkey barbers, an each appointment taking him less than 30 min- expert in trimming and styling horses, camels, utes to finish - depending on the order, and the mules, sheep, goats, dogs and donkeys. He is a animal’s sensitivities. “All the horses are clever - in third-generation qassasseen, the Egyptian Arabic fact all the donkeys, cows and dogs are clever. term for animal barbers, and his grandfather Without a doubt, dogs will slip out from under worked in Cairo’s Abdeen Palace. you,” he says. Mohamed’s father, Mahmoud, taught him the But the work is dangerous. Later in his family’s trade and now, near Old Cairo along the road fol- one-room home, Mohamed traces to a scar lowing the aqueduct, he teaches the craft to his across his right jaw with a finger missing its first son Mustafa. It is a profession often looked down joint. “One horse bit my finger off, another horse upon in Egyptian society, as he works with the hit me here,” Mohamed says, pointing to a scar on beasts of burden that still roam modern Cairo’s his jaw visible through a thick beard. He says a streets, pulling carts filled with vegetables or dentist told him he might lose most of his lower Mustafa Mohamed, 5, reaches to trim a horse at his loads of trash from neighborhoods. But workers teeth soon. Despite that, Mohamed takes pride father’s makeshift animal barber shop in Cairo, Egypt. rely on the animals and take pride in them, get- in his work. “People love us because they trust ting them haircuts or having their fur shaved the quality of work between us,” he says. “They with designs or their initials ahead of major holi- loved my father, and my work is like my father’s days. “There are a lot of other people who do this work.” Here are a series of images by Maya job. But he (Mohamed) is gentle - and his prices Alleruzzo, Middle East regional photo editor for Mohamed Mahmoud, left, takes a break with his son Mustafa, center, and a are gentle too,” says Abdulrahman Ibrahim, a cart The Associated Press, showing the donkey bar- horse owner and his son at his makeshift animal barber shop in the shadow of driver who stopped by Mohamed’s outdoor shop ber’s daily work. — AP the medieval aqueduct. Animal barber Mahmoud holds Mohamed Mustafa, center, trims the hair of a donkey at the ear of a Mohamed Mahmoud, right, trims the hair of a horse as the Mohamed Mustafa, center, trims the hair of a horse as a makeshift animal barber shop. donkey. owner entertains Mahmoud’s five year-old son, Mustafa. his five year-old son, Mustafa pulls on its tail..

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