Thursday, June 23, 2011

Nonsense, Volume 564

Sidebar: The midges are officially gone. Walking path play list: Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack by Karen O. Great music, but too many slow parts for exercising to it. However...add "Rumpus" to your mix. I challenge you to remain still while you listen to it.

Nonsense #1

I may or may not have mentioned all the hullabaloo about the new garbage cans.

Our town was prepped for approximately 6 months around this drastic change to all things refuse, with the move towards automation. Everyone was to receive one garbage and one recycle container. Restrictions may apply. Read fine print for details. Etc.

We received no less than 7 written communications on the subject, because everyone knows that people have to be told 7 times before they remember. There were town meetings. Plural.

Quite a stir, as you can imagine. You can't?

Long story short...the change was made. About a month ago. So of course our "fence" neighbor asked Scott this weekend if he knew why the garbage people weren't taking all their trash off the curb...

But that is not what this post is about.

This post is about the signs coming into town to remind us that our Trash Pick Up is Now on "Friday". (Yes, they changed the day on us, too. I'm telling you...hullabaloo!)

Do not get me wrong. I'm not opposed to the signs. Lord knows, this is something I need help remembering with my mom-nesia.

What I don't get is why Friday is in quotation marks.

Is "Friday" a code word? Wink, wink.

Because when I put quotation marks around something it either means I'm being sarcastic (as in our "fence" neighbors) or something I don't believe. Kind of the same way I interchange air quotes and the word allegedly.

Example 1: Joe is allegedly sick.
Example 2: Joe is "sick".

Either of which implies that I don't believe Joe is sick. Or that sick really means hung over. Because lets face it, that is usually the case.

Nonsense #2

Walking downtown from Public Square to the Q almost every day, I have become deaf, dumb and blind to a lot of things.

Take for instance the resident crazy person at the corner bus stop by the Federal Reserve building.

Unlike some, he doesn't actually ask for anything other than attention. So either he is truly mentally unstable or he's just doing it for shits and giggles. Either way, I do not care so long as he does not invade my personal space.

Thus, I typically ignore him. Much like the high school couple making out on the picnic table at the walking path. Not my child - yet.

So today he is flailing his arms about, pacing the corner, and rambling incoherently as a police vehicle comes up to the light. At which point I distinctly hear "Uh oh, Copper" before more rambling begins.

However, said Copper turns the corner and gets out of his vehicle and "crazy" (allegedly) man goes silent and walks away.

Now, I ask you, would an actual lunatic have the needed faculties to understand the situation he is in and get out of Dodge? Or would he just keep rambling away as the "Copper" (sarcasm) tries to deal with him?

You decide.

1 comment:

  1. As an English teacher, I share your disdain for quotation-mark abuse. How many times do I have to tell my students that if the sign says "LEATHER" PURSES, those purses are probably vinyl? (Or maybe they really are leather, and the person who made the purse sign went to the same punctuation seminar as Bay's trash sign maker.)

    I know I haven't commented in a while, but I always read your posts, and I just could not resist this one! Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete