Category Archives: The Everyman Chronicles

Sign O’ The Times

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About seven years ago, the little town of Indian Hills, Colo. needed a new sign for its community center.

Nestled in a southeast burb about 23 miles from Denver, community leaders weren’t looking for anything garish; after all, it’s a hamlet of only 1,100 people. But city officials wanted something a little more eye-catching than the tiny sign with nondescript letters to announce weddings, fundraisers and the occasional  bingo night.

They approached Vince Rozmiarek, a stay-at-home dad who had recently joined the community center as a volunteer.  They didn’t give him any requirements for the sign — in fact, they had no money for a new one. They just wanted something a little more noticeable.

What they didn’t know was Rozmiarek’s Walter Mitty-esque dreams of being a comedian, though they should have been clued in by his first sign: “Indian Hills annexed by Morrison slow down.”

Perplexed residents flooded the local police department with calls. Had Indian Hills really been absorbed by Morrison, with a population of only 431? And had the speed limit really been dropped? Was this a speed trap?

“I could not believe how many people were calling the police,” Rozmiarek joked with reporters. “I really had the people at the Sit N Bull bar scared out of their minds. I did that and just decided that got a lot of attention so I’ll start throwing things up there.”

He has ever since. Every few days, he puts up something new. Sometimes he throws up his own jokes, sometimes he takes suggestions. Usually, he puts them into a list he reads to his wife. If she laughs, the joke goes up.

Since then, he’s turned Indian Hills into a social media phenomenon. If you look up Indian Hills on Google, a photo of the sign sits next to the town’s map coordinates on the from page of its Wikipedia listing. Tourists come to have their photos taken in front of it. It has 26,000 followers on Facebook.

To Rozmiarek and all other writers who can write something clever — not caustic —  in a fraction of Twitter’s character limit. Our executive branch could use a few pointers.

And a shout out to contributor Earl Troglin!

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Always Signal Your Right Turns

Image result for danielle reno

The presidential race is already too crowded, so I’m not going to nominate this woman for that feeding frenzy. But we in the media owe readers more proof that the human race can rise to the cause.

In this case, the ascension occurred last week, at a Kansas City, MO Quick Trip convenience store, where Danielle Reno met her husband for a custody exchange of their daughter. The exchanges were always amicable, but brief. And this was no different.

But in the moments it took for the handoff, Danielle realized her Toyota 4Runner  that she left running was gone — along with her purse, cell phone, cash and the beaded necklace her daughter made for her, which she always kept hanging on the rear view mirror.

“I got out of the car for two seconds and grabbed my daughter, turned around, and my car was gone,” Reno told KCTV in Kansas City. “‘Did I park somewhere else? No. I know I parked here.’ And then I’m like, ‘Somebody stole my car.’ It was all downhill from there.”

Reno reported the theft to police, who reacted as police do to most car thefts: opened a case no one was going to waste time investigating.

So Reno, who has no police experience, took an unusual step: She did something. After filing the report, she went home and activated her “Find My Iphone” app on her iPad. It led her to a home belonging to a woman nicknamed “Taco Bell,” for some reason. Maybe Del Taco was taken.

When she got to the house, Reno knew something was amiss. Bell gave her a bullshit answer, claiming she didn’t take the 4Runner, but that she thought she saw it in her neighborhood. When Reno told police, who went to Bell’s home, Bell dropped that detail and claimed no knowledge of the theft whatsoever.

Reno then went to the Quick Trip store where the car was stolen. The cashier said that Bell was a regular there; in fact, he overheard her say she was dining at an Applebee’s that night. Problem was, Kansas City has as many Applebees as huckleberries, and the cashier didn’t know which one the rotund robber was referring to.

So Reno called her friends and her sister, and asked them to help her by dining at the multiple Applebee’s (where you’re “Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood!”) around the convenience store. All agreed (that, Moscow Mitch, is called cooperation. Say it with me.) Image result for moscow mitchSo Reno and the ladies enjoyed their Riblet Platters, Shrimp Fajitas and Taco Topped Queso and Chips — while doubling as stakeout cops.

Lo and behold, Bell waddled into Reno’s selected restaurant — after exiting Reno’s gray 4Runner.  Reno sneaked out of the restaurant and “stole” her car back. While the car was full of beer cans in the backseat, Reno found everything except the cash: the purse, the phone and, most importantly, her daughter’s necklace. She drove about a mile away to alert police, who descended on the restaurant. I mean, where was tubby gonna go? The car was gone, and she couldn’t call an Uber.

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Like I said, the presidential election is overcrowded as it is. But maybe local politics are in her future. It just so happens the Missouri governor, Republican Eric Greitens, is a douchebag. In January, he admitted an extramarital affair with a hairdresser, and is now being investigated on claims he threatened to publish nude photos of the woman if she ever went public with the trysts. 011118 SIRAJ Greitens blackmail pic

Riblet, anyone?