.

Sanity gone down the drain?

2008-07-29T09:30:00.009-04:00

Well, we have decided that we owe the Town of Cary, NC an apology. You see, Cary has had a repuation for silly things. To wit:

They delayed the opening of a diner named Gypsy's Shiny Diner for months and months because they said the external appearance of the diner didn't fit in with it's surroundings. The surroundings? A crappy old ice skating rink and a gas station. The diner? A brand new shiny diner reminiscent of the old diners made from converted railroad diner cars.

They refused to allow a Taco Bell permission to paint their building the corporate colors because the colors didn't fit in with the surroundings.

They refused to allow an up-market women's clothing store paint their front door it's signature bright red color because it didn't fit in with the surroundings.

Cary has no affordable housing. It doesn't really want to, but under pressure they decided to allow some very expensive affordable housing to be built. (Huh?)

We are sure that with a little effort that we could come up with more examples of silly rules being enforced in Cary, a.k.a. Containment Area for Relocated Yankees. But alas, we feel we owe them apology. Raleigh, a city normally known for relative sanity, recently decided to ban garbage disposals.

Why? Apparently someone in the Raleigh city government got it into their head that garbage disposals cause sewers to back up. Apparently they looked at one sewer clog and decided it "looked" like stuff from a garbage disposal and therefore set the machinery in motion for the ban. To cut to the chase, the city council quickly decided that the embarrasment of their action was too much to bear and they quickly rescinded the ban. They finally admitted that they really had no evidence to back up the notion that garbage disposals create sewer clogs. As the city utilities department has been saying for years, grease is what clogs the sewers, not vegetable waste.

But the most disturbing aspect of this ban was the penalty. While old disposals were grandfathered, no new construction could include a disposal and no existing disposals could be replaced. (We don't know how they were going to enforce that particular provision. All we had to do was drive a few miles to a neighboring town in order to buy a replacement and install it ourselves.) But the penalty for having a rogue disposal? Sit down so you are ready to hear this. The fine for having an "illegal" disposal was (drum roll) $25,000 A DAY! Now, please someone find another offense that has a penalty of $25,000 a day. What were they thinking when they passed the ban? Who cares! What in the world were they thinking when the fixed the penalty at $25,000 a day!?!?!

So, Town of Cary. We apologize for everything we have ever said about you. Can we please come and live in Cary? Please?

How's This For Irony?

2007-07-22T20:41:00.004-04:00

A long damn time ago, the city of Raleigh, NC closed 2 blocks of Fayetteville Street downtown and made a pedestrian mall. Man, it was nice at lunch time and when the city hosted events. However, the businesses along this pedestrian mall blamed it for killing their businesses. Since folks couldn't park next to the businesses, they had to park in parking garages or on adjacent streets and walk to the mall. Well, that may have been true, but it was still a nice place at lunch time and when the city hosted events.

Well, you know how "people in charge" are. Over time every damn decision they make becomes like a pendulum. So for 30 years or so, we have had a pedestrian mall. Now, pedestrian malls are out of fashion so the the "people in charge" demonize them and pay millions of taxpayer dollars to rip them out and restore the original street. 30 years from now, we guarandamntee you that Fayetteville Street will once again be a pedestrian mall. But that's another story.

What we found ironic, and we have to credit the wife (yes, the wife who....) for this one. A few months after they "opened" up Fayetteville Street, they decided to have a grand re-opening party. So, what did they do to celebrate the grand re-opening of Fayetteville Street? They closed Fayetteville Street for the party and turned it into a pedestrian mall! We love this place!

Welcome To The Naked Whiz's Whizlog

2007-06-27T21:07:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our Whizlog. It's the newest way that you can log your thoughts and ideas to the Internet. Just like we pioneered the introduction of Whizcasts to bring audio material to the masses around the world, we bring you Whizlog! This might be as successful as the chat room we used to host! :-) Or the online discussion forum. :-) again. Whatever, if anyone asks if The Naked Whiz has a blog, you just tell them "No, he has a Whizlog!" We don't plan to limit ourselves to charcoal or ceramic cookers here, but rather post about anything we damn well please. So, again, welcome. We hope you enjoy the show.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We're so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!

And don't forget that Whizlogs, just like those old fashioned blogs are upside down. Up is new, down is old. We thought you'd need to know that. That's why in a few days if we post something new, the "welcome" post will be at the bottom. Isn't it strange that the more you read, the further back in time you go? Sorta like some kind of time warp or something....

TNW