Fining the Littered Upon Instead of the Litterbugs

Hi, I'm a piece of litter. I used to be a disposable coffee cup. Some inconsiderate douchebag decided he couldn't be bothered to carry me an extra block to drop me in a recycling bin. Heck, even a trash can might have worked if there were lots of coffee residue left in me that was too much for recycling to handle. There was a trash can less than ten feet away.

Nope, this guy just drops me to the ground. Since I'm in the way, people passing by kick me out of the way and partly down the street. Ouch! The wind then gets a hold of me. Whee!

Eventually, I end up on Innocent Homeowner's lawn, caught along her neighbor's garden wall. Homeowner's out running errands. She has been for half an hour already and she won't be back for another hour at least. Unfortunately for her, that's when the "Officer" "happens" along.

Officer has tickets, a fat stack of envelopes (Really? Envelopes? What kind of officer carries envelopes?), an itchy writing hand, and one heck of a bad attitude. He spots me chilling on Homeowner's lawn and takes a photo to document me. Cheese! Wait, I blinked! Take another one.

He then writes a ticket for a large fine. The punk calls me a dirty name: litter. Hey, I used to be a coffee cup. I had a legitimate and very useful function. Now, I'm just trash that got found where it shouldn't be through no fault of mine or Homeowner's.

Officer prints out one of those tickets with the bad picture, stuffs it in an envelope, then sticks it in Homeowner's door. About an hour later, Homeowner gets home to find she's out another large amount of money - when money's already tight - for a piece of litter she never had a chance to know was there let alone pick up. Of course, Homeowner would rather pay frivolous fines than save money to fix her leaky roof. Homeowner can't stay on top of any litter that blows along 24-7 365-366 days a year. No one could.

The actual douchebag litterbug gets away scott free. All the other neighbors on the same street with even more litter on the lawns? Officer didn't even bother with them even though anyone with eyes walking down the street could see. Yeah, I'm talking about you there with the newspaper pages and soda cans. And you with the food wrappers and coffee cups.

How is that helpful? That'll really teach litterbugs not to litter anymore if you just fine the people whose lawns the litter ends up on. It especially helps if you ignore all the other litter lying around.

If you see litter in a public park, are you going to fine the dying cancer-stricken wheelchair-bound person the trash blew up against? Or the person who dropped the litter on the ground instead of in a trash can two feet away? How is it fair to fine anyone except the litterbug?

Thanks a lot Philadelphia Streets and Walkways Education and Enforcement Program (SWEEP). Their description: City-run program created to educate Philadelphia citizens about their responsibilities under the Sanitation Code. I recall no education about this before a fine got stuffed in my door.

Fantastic Four 1978 The Incredible Flying Bathtub!

Stop making Sue Storm dumb! Why can't she think to use her powers to turn invisible on her own without getting orders from Reed? She should have known Mr. Fantastic couldn't be beaten by a colied wrapped around him. And why does she have to practice her powers and the others don't?


If Ben can lift 50 tons with his strongest finger, why does it take two arms and lots of effort to life 100 tons?

The Fantasticar: As the Marvel mash-up says: it's a flying bar of soap! It's a flying refrigerator with the doors removed! Sue -- and Thing -- can't be too happy Reed repurposed their fridge. It's a flying group bathtub with tiny compartments! Cozy. What happens when it rains? Not very aerodynamic, is it? No wonder the ever-loving blue-eyed Thing ain't always clamoring to pilot it like he does everything else that flies. Why does Sue get a compartment as tiny as Herbie's?

Reed's the dumbest smart guy in the world. Consider the Fantasticar. Also, when he told Magneto that he hadn't taken the man's powers. He could just have never told or at least waited until Magneto was in cuffs. Of course, they'd have needed plastic cuffs. And if you make a tunnel out of a sealed environment, the atmosphere's going to escape anyway.

Miscellaneous - Villians buy action figures of their enemies to play with? Reed looks like a limp noodle. Come on, Kong wannabe, climb the building! Those peaceful people will eventually get slaughtered if they keep calling others ugly. Yeah, who wants to rule this mess of a world?