Like A Hot Knife Through Butter: L.A. Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa´s commingled-cops-and-trash plan skated through the
City Council Tuesday. The lawmakers unanimously approved the mayor´s
proposal to double the city´s garbage rate to help fund a major
expansion of its police force. Nary a breath of debate was expended
before the council´s vote.
It sounds like Villaraigosa is quite the golden boy at the moment,
with wide coattails stretching to the horizon and everyone in L.A.
jockeying for tickets to take a ride. Ah, political honeymoons, such
sights to behold.
As everyone knows, though, the higher you fly ...
Straight From The Thelma & Louise Playbook: Speaking of
gravity´s inevitable effect on high-flying objects (whilst segueing from
golden boy to golden palace, with a golden goose laying a you-know-what
thrown in for good measure), have a gander at this story concerning the
latest publicity stunt hatched by the odd eggs who run GoldenPalace.com.
As ABC News notes, the online gaming site has become known for
turning things that most would consider trash into wacky marketing
campaigns.
The company´s latest stunt, and I do mean stunt, involves buying 11
used cars for $25,000 on eBay, painting GoldenPalace.com signs on them,
and then -- obviously (I mean, honestly, what else would one
imagine doing with them?) -- driving them off a cliff.
Voila: Instant recycling. A bit messy, true, but show me a faster way
to dismantle 11 cars.
Here´s the kicker (nay, make that a kicker; this story is
nothing but a series of weird twists):
"´People say that´s a lot of money to spend on driving cars off a
cliff, but it´s less expensive than hiring people to do publicity for
us, and we support a charity with each event,´ said [GoldenPalace.com
marketing spokesman Drew] Black. The eBay seller of the Dodge Neon got
to pick the charity for this stunt and the seller selected the Lafayette
House, a mental health center in Missouri."
If only I could make this stuff up.
Let´s wrap up with a quick spin through today´s waste and
environmental headlines.
Small People Should Stay Home
"Big Islanders Invited To Discuss Trash Plans" -- Honolulu Advertiser,
May 16
My Beloved Cavs Should Try This On Rasheed Wallace
"Machine Helps Take B.S. Out Of Composting" -- Gallup Independent, May
15
Major Change In Position; Previously Deemed It ´Comical´
"China Says South Coast Water Pollution ´Serious´" -- Reuters, May 17
Pig, Chicken Continue To Hold Out
"Turkey To Meet EU Environmental Standards" -- The Media Line, May 17
Quick, Silver, Let´s Hightail It Out Of Here
"A Fast One On Mercury" -- Philadelphia Daily News, May 16
Pete Fehrenbach
is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this
column are collected in
the Inbox
archive.
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contents copyright 2005 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.