Yesterday was the MOST fun I've had in a Pride parade. My partner Gary Schiff, council member for the Ninth Ward, and I rode in a Mini Cooper. Gary waved, and I held and waved a sign.
That was not a Mini you drove, that was a BMW 1 series badged and styled to look like a poor carcature of a real Mini. In a hostile takeover, BMW took over Britain's last major carmaker, Rover, and the revered Mini car and brand with it. They sliced up Rover and with it Britain's motor heritage by taking the Mini brand name and turning their legions of lawyers loose on the myriad small businesses that had supported the Mini in the aftermarket. And in the unkindest of all cuts they stopped production of the real Mini. This act of automotive homicide provoked protests all over Britain.
In Britain today no Labour Party officeholder would dare be seen in a phony BMW "mini" like Council Member Schiff rode in. In the street rioting a while back the phony BMW "mini"s were the most frequent cars torched. To this day working class Brits are taking out their revenge on the phony BMW "mini" and they are frequently vandalised. The Mini clubs refuse to accept the phony BMW "mini", and refuse them admission to their events. Despite these measures, the yuppie owners of the wannabe "mini" try to sneak in anyway, so we are forced to use creative methods to keep these status seekers with more money than brains out of our rallies and off our e-mail lists. A real Mini is 56 inches wide and a phony BMW "mini" is a gross 67 inches wide, so the rally entrance gate it made about 64 inches wide to keep out the wannabes...
As folks have pointed out on the list, the sign had a "tasteful" side and a less tasteful side. The tasteful side said "Thank You Supreme Court." When the crowd saw that side they cheered. The less tasteful side said, "Goodbye Strom Thurmond." When the crowd saw that side, they screamed loudly and cheered wildly!
I saw the sign and was hoping you wouldn't use it. I also saw your tasteless attempt to sneak up front with the Wellstone Green Bus and successfully set a pick on you. I realize Council Member Schiff is still rather young and maybe a bit too full of partisan enthusiasm, but how would he have felt if a fundy group had put up a mocking "Goodbye Paul Wellstone" sign at one of their events?
Sadly, this is not the first time I've had to take our youthful DFL Council Member to task for his sins of inexperience. Gary, your ward is quite close to the St.Paul Ford Assembly Plant. They make a pretty respectable pickup there, the Ranger. It has a nice big open bed for you to sit in so you won't have to try to poke your head through that tiny little sunroof. It also runs on ethanol and is great for parades as it has a cooling system that won't quit and can pull up to 6,000 pounds of float. And it's built by some of your constituents!
Keeping a real '66 Mini Cooper S alive in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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