I'm feeling a little guilty for going off the handle yesterday. Sorry. About the length, mainly. And the bad words. My Libran instincts tell me to counterbalance it with something a little more positive today. (BUT, in my defense, the man who told me that his house is sinking is a Man of the Cloth. He struck a chord with my Inner Christian, sending me on my little jihad. You know how these things can happen. I was on a Mission >From God, you might say. So you see, it's really not my fault. Besides, the sinking man-in-black's name is Damien - talk about an omen! He snuck the fear of God into me before I could say DI! ECCE HORA! UXOR MEA ME NECABIT!, and off I went to shout from the e-mountaintop.) A few months ago I gave to the City of St. Paul my wind-sock-cigarette idea, but the St Paul Office of Invention Submissions must not have thought much of it. I still think there's a market out there. The City owns all sorts of property, but no Intellectual Property that I can think of offhand. And why not? It's valuable stuff. You can imagine how important IP is to us here at The Mine. Besides, owning their own bit of IP would make all the "privatization" and "Republican-esque" people feel good, and all the liberals would have an endless stream of money to fix things. My Idea Of The Day is worth about $15MM, I reckon. Enough for a strong winning bid on, say, a nice brewery. It's my gift to Mayor Kelly and to rest of you, his Collective Boss. Here it is: In an effort to calm auto and truck traffic on residential streets, and to get people to STOP EVEN WITH THE STOP SIGNS AND NOT IN THE CROSSWALK, a device can be placed across the street by local residents to alert drivers. It is all-weather, all-season, and snow-plow friendlyf. It's a rubber tube about three inches in diameter that stretches across the street and is anchored at the ends with bean bags. It is coated with a bright, reflective material which, since the tube is circular, can be seen from any diametral angle. Messages can be written on it like, "Slow Down, For Crying Out Loud!!" or "I beseech thee to sloweth down" or "Stop Here And Let The Old Man Across, Would Ya?!" or whatever you want. Autos can just drive over it quietly. If it gets moved, it won't hurt anything, and if the bean bags break, the crows will clean it up. The bags are made of a nice nesting material. The tube is Nerf-like or bicycle inner-tube-like. If it snows, the resident in charge moves it before the plows come. If they are unable, the plow just plows it down the road and the resident finds it later, maybe in the spring. But since they'd be sold three to a pack, there'd be extras in the garage. This is a nice complement to the reflective whirly-gig thingie that can be yours for a small fee. Don't mention it. AMH Innovation Boulevard & McKnight Road Andrew M. Hine Corporate Research Materials Laboratory 3M Center 201-1W-28 St. Paul MN 55144-1000 USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (651) 733-1070 Fax: (651) 737-5335 Lab 201-W110 _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
