âGreding did tell it to the judge, or a hearing officer, anyway, and lost. Heâs appealing.â
He is appealing!
Kafka would love this!
This is why you should always install the âNO ASSHOLESâ sign first.
And then stop installing signs.
Iâve got to share this story.
Roughly four years ago, when I was working in downtown Providence, an intensive program began to ensure that no one would be able to park for free anywhere in the city. New meters sprang up everywhere, and despite my arriving early in the morning, there were fewer and fewer places where I could leave my car without springing for a garage or getting ticketed.
Finally, it was down to one narrow, isolated strip where I could park at the crack of dawn, and be safe for the day. I used it, but one afternoon, I returned after work to find two things:
A brand-new parking meter right beside my car, with the dust and debris from the freshly-drilled mounting hole still strewn around the surrounding sidewalk, and
A fluorescent orange parking ticket proudly attached to my windshield. I was gobsmacked.
As I stood there in disbelief (most likely with my mouth hanging open) a transit bus pulled up. The driver opened his door, and said âI saw them this morning⌠they were drilling and ticketing everybody.â He let me take his picture with my iPhone, and I also photographed the debris.
A couple weeks went by, and I showed up in municipal court to appeal the ticket. You can imagine what I told them, and the judge passed my printed photos around to the bailiff and other court personnel; everyone had a good laugh.
She threw out the ticket. But I was still out a couple hours work for having to go to court.
Sadly, Iâm not. Been there, done that. Got the impound receipt. Public parking lot that magically became private without any signage at all. (Orlando went through a similar war on free parking back in the late 80âs early 90âs in an effort to âupscaleâ downtown.)
Cultural death by a thousand cuts (of bullshit tickets).
As a non-English speaker I find your correction interesting. Why is it that the contraction isnât allowed here?
Itâs not a correction of the contraction, but one of the fun parts of English, a joke on a word with multiple meanings.
In the original comment âappealingâ was used in the sense of âseeking a re-evaluation of a court findingâ, and I believe that the joke in the reply comment was a play on âappealingâ in the sense of a comment that Mr. Greding is himself attractive or interesting.
In addition to the play on words that Bobo mentioned, using the two words fully written out âhe isâ - instead of the contraction âheâs,â is a way to show emphasis. This gives the meaning, âHe really IS appealing!â
I donât know why but this reminds me of that story about those cops that had sex with a bunch of prostitues then instead of paying them they arrested them.
âWe were just doinâ our jerb!â
On the other hand, how could it take over 75 minutes to put up a sign?
He didnât. He had been there 20 minutes and he had already put other signs. So, he still had 55 minutes left.
If he didnât sign the install, heâs OK I think.
i actually got the wordplay. Not much different from âthe peasants are revoltingâ, after all. But somehow I thought it was a correction based on a genuine rule like âno contractions to be used when the verb could be misunderstood an adjective" or something like that.
Perhaps I shouldnât have given up coffee this week.
Memo to all parking sign installers:
As you install your signs write âexcept sign installersâ on each sign, in something water-washable as you install them. And stop working if it rains.
But officer, I hadnât finished putting up the âNo Public Masturbation Signâ.
for the governmentâŚ
All I can think of is an old Benny Hill gag of a man who puts up a âPost No Billsâ sign and is immediately arrested.
