Ten on Tuesday

This week's Ten on Tuesday is "10 Things You Dislike About Politics". I don't think I can really do a decent list, so instead, I'm going to tell a story. During the 2004 election, Hubbster and I lived in a great little apartment in Uptown Minneapolis. The building was at a major interesection, and very close to the freeway entrance. Starting about two weeks before the election, there was a group of people who decided to express their political views on that same corner. You know the type- loud and obnoxious, with large, homemade signage, prepared for the long haul with thermoses full of hot beverages. This, in itself, is mildly annoying, but that's not the half of it. These people were there early. I mean, buttcrack of dawn early. Before the sun is up early. Painfully early. All of the morning traffic, from about 6 am on, got to see these people. Now, I could maybe deal with some shouting outside of my window at 6 in the morning. Maybe. This, though, was not just some raucous yelling. Oh no, these people had signs which instructed driver-byes to honk. HONK, people. At 6 am. Lawd, I was more than pissed. After about the third morning, I decided something needed to be done. I jumped on the internet and found the Minneapolis noise ordinance laws. I printed them out, and highlighted the section that dealt with this particular situation. (If you're curious, it's illegal to honk your horn for no reason in Minneapolis, and illegal to cause people to do so.) I wrote a note on the back stating I would call the cops if they kept it up, and put it in an envelope. We handed it to them with a smile on our way out that morning. They moved to a different corner, and we slept better all the way up to election day.