A Bad Sign

...literally.

We had a little local local-news excitement in our quiet little neighborhood last night.

In our neighborhood, there are several little patches, just certain lots really of sovereign indian land. On these little patches of property, certain laws don't apply . Therefore, the local tribes get to set up shops that sell tobacco at a discount (no state taxes), fireworks that are otherwise illegal and massive advertising billboards for which the usual city zoning laws don't apply.

There are probably about three of these little Smokeshop properties within about at one mile radius of our home.

Well, it seems that two of their enterprises and the laws of physics conspired against each other yesterday as a recently constructed massive billboard collapsed and partially crushed a smokeshop thereby eliminating two local eyesores in a matter of a few seconds. (I can jest since the shop was vacant at the time.)



I noticed this on the way home from work yesterday since one of my "normal" routes takes me past the sign and I noticed all the commotion of the police taping off roads etc. This must have just happened not too long before I passed by.

After coming home, enjoying dinner and telling the tale of the fallen sign to the family, the kids decided they wanted to have a look for themselves. We put on our coats, put Ben in a stroller and the dog on a leash and went for a stroll to see the calamity for ourselves. It seemed we were just on time to enjoy seeing the local news teams also lined up to cover/over-hype the event. There were lots of lights and commotion and therefore it was a lot of fun for the kids.



We even got to see (gasp) Jim Forman in person covering the historic collapse. "Danger Jim" as he is known to local tongue-in-cheek-Seattleites manages to be a bit of a local joke and icon at the same time (kind of like the EMP).

He is the local reporter that always seems to be working from the edge of calamity (waist deep in floodwaters, braving the wind on the coast as massive storms roll in, in the forest doused with gasoline as wildfires rage, etc. etc... ad nauseum). It is his job to make sure that we know just how severe of a calamity we are witnessing ("Oh the humanity!") and how the world as we know it might end at any given moment.


Danger Jim must have lost a bet to come cover this one. Slow news day I guess. He didn't seem particularly interested as he and the rest of the media quickly scurried to grab their sound bites and video from the usual assortment of slack-jawed troglodytes ("Goll-durn where is I gonna get my cheap smokes and M-80's now!?") and then hit the road again.

Soon it was dark and we were on our way back home too as I was able to teach the kids yet another valuable lesson about the hidden dangers of smoking and billboard advertising.