Several people were gathered around for a performance of the play The Marvelous Marriage (which featured actors not belong to Count Olaf's troop) and the latest in auction, which featured such items as a pair of jeans so humongous that that they were hanging in a giant frame, a giant statue of Steve from Blue's Clues made of chocolate, and a ginormous inflatable light-up ice cream cone. Carmelita Spats was screaming above the crowd "I want to wear the big pants! I want to eat the giant glowing ice cream cone! I want to eat the chocolate man!" over and over. Hal was also very excited, as he had been asked to cut the rope enclosing the exhibits once someone had won them. He was also excited because of all the great things at this years auction, making him wish that he was a bidder rather than just the rope cutter. The rope was situated just below the power cable that was being used to power up the ice cream cone and as Hal was given the clipping shears he thought about how much he would like to play on the massive ice cream while thinking "it's kind of weird that there's two ropes, they said there was only one. But I guess the lower one is just some stray string from the jeans or the chocolate melting." Hal then preceded to cut the rope but instead cut the cable. The cable went up in the air and picked up about 5 or 6 people who started screaming as they were engulfing in a whirlwind of energy for about 30 seconds before falling to the ground when the cable had sizzled out. Hal thought "I wonder why no rope has ever done that before."