(no subject)

[rain_gryphon]

There's a fairly busy intersection downtown here, which I occasionally have cause to cross. Both of the cross streets are high volume throughout the day, and people tend to run the red lights here. It's downtown, and they're busy.

Recently the city decided to make the intersection safer for blind people. We'll have to be charitable, at least, and assume that was their intent. What they did was to add a piercingly loud beeper that sounds when its safe to cross the street. The problem is, it doesn't tell you *which* street its safe to cross, and the constant din makes it difficult to hear the traffic, which would otherwise tell you. The raucous beeping continues all through the 'safe to cross' phase. I suppose a few run-over blind people is a small price to pay for the moral satisfaction of having given an otherwise unemployable retarded guy a job in traffic administration.

Comments

[maxgoof.livejournal.com]

And you said that without a trace of sarcasm.

Very good. (grin)

[nikonraccoon.livejournal.com]

Are the tones different at all? Back in San Diego, there were two different tones, for if you were crossing east/west vs north/south. That's how you know when it's safe to cross

[oliver-otter.livejournal.com]

I wish Bush would bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps, and give the unemployed at least a basic wage doing something useful, if not really necessary.

Unfortunately, with today's union contracts, he can't. It'd cost too much, between negotiating union contracts for wages, providing health coverage, and covering workers' comp for all the new hires. No to mention the existing unionized federal jobs have contracts which protect them from non-union competition by banning the government from hiring people (or even accepting volunteers) from doing any job they're supposed to do, even if they're not doing it. Way to go, corrupt servants of organized labor (http://www.johnkerry.com/), you've done a wonderful job of making it too expensive to hire Americans. What a great service you've done for the country so far.

Oops, I didn't avoid sarcasm. Sorry. %-)

[(Anonymous)]

I take it you didn't apply for the job first, then.