Rants
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Stealth Statues Evade Picky Zoning
Monday, March 9th, 2009Let’s say that you own a business, and you want to erect an eye-catching roadside statue to pull in customers — but laws in your overly regulated community say that you can’t.
Tick Tock Tick Tock
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Is the American Dream running out of time? Downtown merchants across the country are saying “No!” by erecting over-sized, fake, olde-timey clocks. Pole-mounted timepieces, according to the Christian Science Monitor, are elevating shopping districts above their rivals in neighboring towns (at least until those towns get their own clocks). One businessman told the Monitor, “The […]
Montana’s Attractions: Pawns In Cell Phone Chess Game
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009Has a cell phone company dared Montana to eliminate its roadside attractions? It sure sounds that way in Helena, Montana, where the legislature is considering banning the use of cell phones by drivers across the state. Montana has lots of empty space, and its open-ended speed limits in the late 1990s (now re-limited to 75 […]
A New Spirit of America?
Monday, January 19th, 2009Last week, news reports noted that Barack Obama wax figures were being officially installed in Madame Tussauds around the globe (He was already in place in the Washington DC Tussauds). In Amsterdam, for example, the wax George W Bush was given a set of luggage, and put on the street outside the museum as if […]
Pocket Change Can Add Up To Big Bucks
Thursday, January 1st, 2009Nebraska’s “Chimney Rock” has reaped attendance benefits from being on the back of a quarter, according to the Scottsbluff Star-Herald (Although the coin didn’t call the rock by its original name). This kind of free advertising was surprisingly absent from the recent “50 States Quarter Program” — but now the states have a second chance. […]
Amazing Similarities Between Lincoln and Santa Claus
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008A recent swing through southern Indiana put us in the adjacent communities of Lincoln City — home of the Bronzed Foundation of Abraham Lincoln’s Boyhood Home — and Santa Claus. The physical proximity of two towns built around two triple-A American deities made us wonder. Is it mere coincidence? Aside from Lincoln and Santa’s eating […]
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