BOOYA BROUHAHA 12/19/03 [Why am I not surprised that my spell checker bounces "booya"?] Maybe I am not the one to write about the city's impending booya crisis. I really don't know a lot about the stuff. I've consumed it a few times and it just seems like a soup designed by a committee. But somehow booya events usually seem to go by without my participation/contribution. Often, I see the signs announcing that the somebody or another [the XYZ Club or the Church of the Holy Whatever or somebody] has a spaghetti dinner, pig roast, pancake breakfast, booya, or similar event coming up and I tell myself that I ought to stop in there. But when the given day comes, I never seem to think of it and make other eating arrangements. Then the next day when I drive by the place where I saw the sign, I mutter something to myself about how stupid I am for forgetting to stop by. I can rationalize later by noting that most of the food served is something that a middle-aged overweight man like me to have. And sometimes I am right; I remember especially a booya a couple of decades ago in which I think one of the organizers must have had an interest in a salt mine. But usually, that is just something I tell myself to make myself feel a little better. It's not like what I really did eat was all that good, anyway. [I'm sorry to disappoint the two or three of you who thought that I am a young, skinny, athletic type, but the internet is full of enough liars already.] Maybe we are all safer having our Division of Parks and Recreation led by a foreigner. When local people ran P&R, several times a year they carelessly endangered the lives of thousands of people by letting them be exposed at various community functions to dangerous booya kettles [or the gas plumbing used to make them cook] at Highland Park. [I know that you are all groaning here thinking that I will do some terrible pun-filled comment on booya and gas, but hold those groans. I will not stoop so low, at least not now, this time.] But since we now have an out-of-towner running P&R, we now have this new concern for the health and welfare of our people. I really don't think that previous P&R directors were unconcerned about community safety. I do find myself wondering whether local people didn't try to balance the remote possibility of trouble against the perceived general good that booya provides. It seems likely that the booya crisis can be solved. I can think of a few approaches to the problem and if I can think of a few, certainly somebody else can think of one. Direct city bail out seems to be out of order right now. Since the city is currently reducing or eliminating funding to a lot of worthy causes, I would find it hard to find a way that the city can justifiably fund the booya kettle reconstruction directly. But if booya is a money maker, there should be some way to pull something off. Maybe it would be corporate donation, increased rental fees, time share rental, or even a booya booya or two with whatever increased observation or inspection is needed, or some combination thereof. Corporate donations do not seem out of the world considering how many people come to these things. Signs strategically place near the kettles and/or serving line announcing the participation of ABC Bank or DEF automobile dealership or GHI cell phone company would be seen by many and could be seen by the same many for several years. Rental increases are a less savory way for getting money. After all, the reason for having the event is to raise money and increased overhead is antithetical to that end. However, if an organization wishes to keep making money, it might have to tighten its belt a bit for a year or two. This might be more palatable to the Sons of Symbolism or whatever group is running the fundraiser if they were allowed to obtain rights hold their fundraisers at a certain time each year for the next x number of years. I know that there are a variety of things to work out before all of this could take place, but it doesn't seem beyond possibility. A booya booya could also be an interesting idea. Have all [or at least several] of the groups which do booyas at the park get together and do a special one together, one to raise funds for new booya equipment. You would need to find a date which none of the organizations was already using so that everybody understood the import of the occasion. The politician seem to think that continued booya is good for the city. I would agree. Our mayor prides himself on his ability to get people together and get things done. Maybe using one or more of these concepts [and maybe something else as well] will dave the day. Now, I will just have to remember to get myself over there. CSP |