I bring you a quiz:
Question #1: You're walking your dog a few blocks from home. You live downtown in a major American city, Chicago, and you take your dog to the one empty block in the loop where some weeds thrive, despite many of the Loop doggies actively raising the nitrogen levels on a daily basis. However, on this Sunday, your dog is much more interested in something than she normally is. (See picture).
That, there, is a dead fish, about a foot and a half long, wrapped in foil, and sitting just a few feet off the sidewalk. The temperature has been in the forties most of the day, and the fish appeared sometime between 10 pm on Saturday and 10 am on Sunday. What do you do?
A: Ignore the fish. You did not put it there, and even though it disgusts you, it's not your responsibility to clean dead fish off the sidewalk.
B: Assume the property owner will take responsibility for the fish, even if this property owner can't be bothered to shovel the snow in the winter.
C: Let your dog try and eat the fish. She seems really interested in it.
D: Call city services at 311 and let them know about the fish... even if the sales and property taxes are ridiculously high, and the city has a massive budget deficit, and it will probably cost the taxpayers close to $100 to pick up the fish.
E: Walk half a block, get a free copy of the Red Eye from the newspaper stand, walk back, pick up the fish, and deposit the Red Eye and fish in the garbage can on the corner.
F: Other, please explain.
Bonus Question - Essay format Is it appropriate for a church to make an announcement about filling out the US Government Census during the church service?
Use the comments, and let me know what you think.
Are we picking what we think you did? Because I pick E. You're the responsible type and not easily grossed out (remember our mouse?).
Bonus: Wow.
I'm asking what you would do. I actually did D... and felt really bad about it. How lazy is it for me to call the city rather than deal with it myself... but I didn't want to handle the fish.
Yes I remember the Mouse. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
A - think about it again if it's still there in a few days. I'm not a good citizen.
Is it during the announcements? Seems like good citizenship, unless it's said somehow creepily. Like God hates you if you don't fill it out..
Umm, F. Blog the fish.
Churches should encourage the worshipers to fill out their census survey.
a.) How did Jesus come to be born in a manger?
b.) Get from ceasar what is ceasar's, and from God what is God's. -- Osteen 11:29
So, last week, after the fish had been there for 5 days, I finally took matters into my own hands and used a Red Eye to pick up the fish and throw it out. I almost tweeted @MayorDaley about it, but never got around to it.
Thus endeth the tale of the urban fish.
The fish shenanigans have me laughing at my desk at work :) Although the part that actually got me laughing out loud was the sentence "Blog the Fish," so thanks Theis!
See most of you in a few weeks.