Now this is a bad idea.
I was visiting the family this weekend, and I couldn't help but notice that one of my Dad's neighbors bought a new mail box to adorn his front yard. As you may have noticed from the photo, it's a giant plastic golf ball. This isn't a photo that I took, but rather one that I grabbed from online merchant.
I suppose a little preface is in order. I grew up in a pretty rural area of Pennsylvania. There's not a whole lot to do out that way. When teenagers are bored, they drive around and look for things to do. Often times, these things to do involve senseless destruction, and I don't want to shock people here, but on occassion, as a teenager driving around, said teen-ager might smash mailboxes.
Not the normal mailboxes. I mean, what's the point of that? Some non-descript black aluminum mail receptacle is hardly entertaining to destroy. The true joy of vandalism comes from knowing that one has destroyed something precious. An elaborate mailbox with glued on bits of wood to resemble a cat or a turkey or maybe a sailboat would be a great mailbox to smash for a vandal. It just feels like a more destructive use of one's time.
Not that I condone vandalism, and not that I've ever done it personally, I'm really speaking hypothetically.
Anyway, the moral of the story is this: Teens smash stuff. Teens smash mailboxes. Teens hang out of moving car windows with baseball bats and smash mail boxes. That isn't just stuff they make up in the movies. So why would anyone, in their right mind, intentionally install a mailbox that is shaped like a ball that people hit with sticks?
Some things are just beyond my comprehension. Besides, it's pretty damned ugly.
- under:
- Life in General
- Posted on
- 2005-04-24
Comments:
Funny this should come up...
I noticed a couple of snippets on this subject on my reading adventures.
Exhibit a: http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/06/survival_of_the_fitt.html
Exhibit b: http://www.boingboing.net/2004/09/06/fortified_mailboxes_.html
Exhibit c: http://www.mailboxer.us/products.htm
Oh my. Those are hilarious, but somehow frightening that there's as much buzz about mailbox vandalism as there is.
For the record, there's a reason for flimsy mailboxes: They won't kill an errant driver. In RI, it's allegedly a law that mailboxes be built to break-away in case someone loses control of their car and hits one. Of course, I still see mail-fortresses along my commute to work anyway. But the logic behind the break-away design makes sense to me, I know that if I were to have to swerve to avoid a child, I'd appreciate destroying and replacing a guy's mailbox sooner that having a brick mail-fortress end up in my lap.
Um, that giant golfball mail box is made to be smashed, preferably with a giant golfclub.
This article is closed to further commentary. But you can always contact me directly.