FIRE WHEN YOU SEE THE WHITES OF THEIR HEADLIGHTS
The Michigan governor should call out the National Guard to take dangerous trucks off the roads, says a county commissioner in Flint who dislikes Canadian garbage being trucked into his area.
“The state troopers who do occasionally patrol the expressways seldom, if ever, stop semi-trucks because the troopers simply are not trained to do truck enforcement,” John D. Nickola said in The Flint Journal. “I can statistically predict that there will be a catastrophic event on I-69 within the near future.”
“He’s out to get every darn truck on the road, and that’s wrong,” says owner-operator Darrold Isham of Flint. “It’s not right to slam every truck driver just because he has a bone to pick with some garbage. Some poor, unsuspecting driver could come into this area and get caught in a rat’s nest.”
Besides, Isham adds, doesn’t the National Guard have more important things to do these days than harass truckers?
CARTOON BLASTS SPEEDING TRUCKS ON I-81
This editorial cartoon by John R. Rose of the Harrisonburg, Va., Daily News-Record annoyed James E. Didawick of Woodstock, Va., whose trucker father retired after more than 3 million miles. “This type of cartoon only serves to reinforce the idea to the uninformed that truck drivers are speed demons who will run over anything that gets in their way,” Didawick says. The address for complaints: Daily News-Record, P.O. Box 193, Harrisonburg, Va. 22801. Rose’s drawing style may look familiar, as he also draws the 83-year-old syndicated comic strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith.
HE’S ANYTHING BUT CHARMIN’
Flush away your frustrations with some “Wipe out terrorism” toilet paper. Each two-ply square shows Osama bin Laden’s face. The four-packs are $24.95 from Consumers Interstate in Norwich, Conn. Call (800) 450-5447, Ext. 263, or visit www.toiletpaperworld.com.
QUOTABLES
That’s entertainment
“This one here is a beauty.”
– Jean Powers of Antonelli’s Meat Market in Waterbury, Conn., who keeps binoculars near the register to check out big-rig wrecks on the I-84 ramp over the Naugatuck River
Let’s hold our noses for another 19
“It’s been 19 stinking years.”
– Art Philip, chairman of toll highways in Illinois, saying a rate increase is long overdue
Waaaaa!
“There’s going to be a lot of hungry babies in Norfolk tonight.”
– Spencer Nave Jr. of Williamsport, Md., who was hauling baby food to Virginia when a blowout wrecked his truck
It’s a sort of tax
“During the Taliban time, there was one government and one law. Now every district has its own government.”
– Trucker Mateeulla Jan, who had to bribe soldiers nine times on a 310-mile haul across Afghanistan
Whoa!
“They dive into the exit, and when they do, look out. They’ve knocked down the signs at times.”
– Kansas trooper Charles Burton, on last-minute lane changes to get into the inspection station
