Thursday, October 13, 2011

In Res Plumbarium

(Why yes, I did get Ds in Latin.) Okay, fine: "About the Plumber." We use Ben Franklin Plumbing, a local outfit with a surrealistically catchy jingle and generally good results -- so far, they've been 4 for 5 with us and the exception was probably due to my not making it quite clear enough that I wanted a verdammt indoor shutoff for the outside spigot.

--Anyway, I was wondering what the American Prometheus might've said 'pon restoring drainage:

"Mr. Franklin, Mr. Franklin, what sort of drain have we got?"

"A republic, madame, if you can keep it."

And on that general line of thought, it occurs to me that the threat of administering caustic soda to politicians whenever they become so full of excrement that they're of little use is not so bad an idea -- oh, but alas, who could we trust to ply the plunger in a fair and even-handed manner?

Still-- Tempting, ain't it? With the drain auger in reserve for really bad cases.

In the meantime, voting: use regularly to keep our representative's courses clear.

9 comments:

  1. Hope the drain gets clean and stays.

    No pictures, please.

    WV: repee

    I ain't going there.

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  2. Does there exist a large enough rooter to drain the cesspool that is D.C.?

    Um....

    WV: palin (really)

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  3. I don't know who said it originally, but it's been seen far and wide on th' webz recently: "Diapers and politicians should be changed often, and usually for the same reason."

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  4. "who could we trust to ply the plunger in a fair and even-handed manner"

    Crowd-source it. When the smoke clears, it'll probably be kindasorta reasonable to declare the result "fair and even-handed" in the aggregate. Certainly the survivors, if there are any, will be quite suitably chastised.

    And if the next generation isn't deterred from repeating the mistakes of the past, then nothing will deter them and we ought to give up the prospect of "good government" as hopeless fantasy.

    This is, ultimately, the same logic as lies behind the franchise and the unorganized militia. :)

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  5. I suspect that diaper line may be Heinlein. Can't swear to it, though.

    wv: recks. Yep. R. Ecks.

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  6. Nathan,
    Actually it was Mark Twain.

    wv: terated -- not quite x-rated

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  7. Both good old Missouri boys. Sometimes hard to tell the difference.

    ReplyDelete

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