Bureaucracy Knows No Nationality
Global warming is leaving leaves on the trees in Canada later and later into the year, causing distress when city leaf pick-up ends before the leaves hit the ground. In Toronto, the city government stops picking up bags of leaves in early December. Facing a cut-off of pick-up before the leaves actually fall, citizens have been asking their government what they should do. The government's not-altogether-helpful answer:
"If they come down between now and Dec. 7, you bag 'em and we'll pick 'em up. If they are later than that, we're asking people to store them until we can get them in the spring."
Because in Canada, during the winter, no one has anything better to keep in their garages than bags of leaves.
More importantly, what is leaf pick-up policy in Thunder Bay?
Posted by: Wally | 11/19/2007 at 10:35 AM
And Democrats want to put these people in charge of health care.
Ok, not exactly these people, since they're foreigners, but their American equivalents.
Posted by: Conrad | 11/19/2007 at 07:32 PM
Damn! I used the word "foreigner". A 3000 word diatribe by Squidly is sure to follow.
Posted by: Conrad | 11/19/2007 at 07:33 PM
Conrad, I have always admired your gift of terseness. I'm sorry for my lack of it.
As the saying goes, I apologize for the length of this letter, but I did not have time to make it shorter.
(Attributed to Augustin, Chesterfield, Einstein, Goethe, Jefferson, Lincoln, Pascal, Proust, Thoreau, Twain, Voltaire, Wilde, etc.)
Posted by: Squidley | 11/19/2007 at 10:41 PM
Speaking as a Canadian (living in Toronto and originally from Thunder Bay), there's a few choices... 1) leave the leaves where they fall (i don't understand this obsession with raking) 2) put them in a bag and leave it in your back yard (soon to be covered with snow out of sight anyway) 3) make a compost heap (the City of Toronto actually will PROVIDE a composter for free!).
Generally, the snow has fallen before December 7 anyway, so not prime leaf raking time anyway. I'd rather our tax money be put towards salting the roads and ploughing the sidewalks than picking up leaves.
But, it just goes to show, people will complain about anything.
Posted by: Graig | 11/23/2007 at 04:24 PM