Its like wax on apples

Did you know that they put wax on apples? In case this is the first you’ve heard it, every time you eat an apple from your grocer you are eating just a little bit of wax. It all started some time ago when some farmer somewhere realized that waxing his apples made them more appealing, which in turn made him a bigger profit. So when the farmer down the road saw the shiny apples he started…

Can you see where this is going? Now everyone waxes their apples and we just take it for granted that apples are shiny. Really they aren’t.

And kids aren’t made of cardboard.

Huh? Kids aren’t made of cardboard? What the hell does that have to do with wax on apples?

Rack focus: Ohio, the residential section of Main Street

Despite the speed limit being reduced as drivers enter the residential section of Main Street the traffic past one Ohio mans home often dashes by at 55mph or more (or so he says). Frustrated with this dangerous situation he made life-size cardboard cut-outs of his children and placed them by the side of the road.

Now, while teenagers and the elderly make excellent targets, no one wants to hit a kid and the cutouts appear so real that they are actually causing drivers to slow down. Some have even called out in anger, admonishing him for allowing his children to play so close to the road (Oh…sorry my kids got in the way of your drag race buddy). The idea is so popular that it has been posted on law enforcement web sites and he’ll even make you a cardboard kid for the sum of $60.

So what’s the problem you ask?

What if people start using the cardboard kids as target practice or in some sick and twisted version of mailbox baseball? Will they be able to tell the difference when a real child is standing by the side of the road? What happens when people get de-sensitized to seeing children on the side of the road? Will they stop slowing down? Will they speed up? How will this affect the safety of real children?

Only time will tell. Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn out like wax on apples.