Traffic was unreasonably slow approaching the 520 bridge this morning, unreasonably slow even for 8:30 AM on a weekday, especially without any crazy weather (sunshine. rain. wind.) to blame it on.
I discovered the issue when I finally reached the bridge - there was a bald eagle perched on a lightpole, preening, and everyone was checking him out. His perch was hanging over the East-bound lanes near the sculptures-formerly-fountains. Traffic was backed up pretty far in both directions.
My observation:
The animals will soon figure out how to bring human civilization to a standstill.
My proposed defense against this particular animal tactic:
The DOT could place decoys of unusual birds on top of all the lightpoles, so no one notices when one is real.
That might have been a better use of art project dollars than the overly fascinating, beautiful and interesting-to-an-unfortunate-degree fountains that were there. I loved those fountains: kinetic, exciting. The way they were constantly changing based on the winds and the angle of the sun made them always worth a good long slow-the-car-down look. The replacement sculptures are nice, and nicely static, but they couldn't be too nice or they'd still be slowing traffic. (The DOT says they removed the fountains because of high maintenance costs, but I don't believe it.)
Anyway, I was itching to tell someone this random bit of news, and you all are my victims. I'm sure there will be more bulletins in the future.
Done for now.
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1 comment:
Back in the days when the Chicago Bulls were really good, the Hart Shaffner Marx billboard overlooking the Kennedy Expressway would repaint its portrait of Dennis Rodman every time he changed his hair color. So, like, every week. And traffic -- rarely wonderful to begin with -- stopped.
At least your bald eagle doesn't have the behavorial issues of Mr. Rodman, although his rebounding skills probably can't compare.
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