I Can't Stand the Rain...

It's pouring here in NYC this morning (and it's been gray and damp for daze now), the kind of rain that soaks a good part of you even if you have an umbrella up and a raincoat on. But weather like this still doesn't keep the sign-ripper-downers from their appointed rounds. As I ran to the corner Starbucks for a giant paper cup of tea, I spotted this bearded old white man tearing down 'Mayor Mike Bloomberg' signs that had been stapled around a lamp pole and stuffing them into a garbage can.

Like most cities, people tape up missing pet signs, ads for room painters or babysitters, things like that (and as we stumble toward November, placards for politicians). Since New York tends to cultivate a fair number of psycho-compulsive people, it's not too hard to spot those permanently upset by unauthorized signage on our streetlamps.

Here's the profile:

- Caucasian

- typically 65 and older

- usually male, but female variants have been spotted

- may be accompanied by small dog or 'granny' cart

- some appear to be people of great means, others appear ragged and semi-destitute

- demeanor: crotchety, testy, oblivious to the outside world

- cannot tolerate any form of paper attached to streetlamps or sign poles and will march block after block in search of these offending articles (and angrily remove the signage and tape when found)

- approach with extreme caution

One could only imagine what would happen if these folks were sent off to a place like San Francisco, where the wooden telephone poles and local traditions support a thriving ecosystem of stapled signage...