Yes, we have no horses!

Oh, there you are. I was hoping you'd gallop on by about now. (Doing the Horse Dance - Korean Style seems to be all the rage right now!) It's always good to see you and share a virtual coffee and treat with you... maybe even a horse laugh or two! Say...did you hear that in August, in the US State of Michigan, a government watchdog group learned, in a Freedom of Information Act request, that the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department still to this day retains one job classification for a horseshoer. (The department owns no horses.) 

Over the years, the position has become a patronage slot paying about $57,000 a year in salary and benefits, sometimes requiring the "horseshoer" to do "blacksmith" work such as metal repair. (Because of severe budget cuts, the city employees' union fights to retain every job, no matter its title.) [Michigan Capitol Confidential, 8-20-2012].

You've got to wonder, don't'cha... who fills the position? It sounds like a friend of a local politician, doesn't it? I mean someone's got to do the blacksmithery, eh. It begs the question "How many other 'horseshoer' positions are out there - filled or unfilled?" I wonder about things like that. Another project for my research assistant.

Remember the law that, at last report, was still on the books in at least one US state requiring "...a man with a red flag to walk 10 paces ahead of every horseless carriage"? I wonder if that's still on the books. I haven't seen any 'red flagmen' around lately. Mind you, they'd be a blur on the radar the way traffic moves. Does the union know about this one? They're into saving jobs right? Imagine a union of flagmen equal to the number of vehicles in the USA? That'd be one heck of a union, eh! Might slow the traffic down a little which would not entirely be a bad thing, would it?

See ya, eh! Nong's waving a red flag at me. Maybe she wants to go for a drive!

Bob