After many years and $11 billion in construction costs, New York City’s new Grand Central Station has now opened. There’s at least one problem, however. Under a quote literally written in stone, the name of painter Georgia O’Keeffe is misspelled.

[Image via Bloomberg]

The painter’s last name is correctly spelled with two effs.

“We clearly f-ed this one up and it’s being fixed,” communications director for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), Tim Minton, told Bloomberg.

I’m not certain if Minton was engaged in a bit of wordplay, though I like to think so. Either way, I appreciate the candor.

Speaking of nonsense, friend-of-the-site Chris D. alerted me to a terribly stupid argument New York and New Jersey are having over automated enforcement of traffic laws.

A little background: At present, over 1/3 of American states ban the use of red light and speed cameras. There are many good reasons for this, including issues with privacy and due process, as well as perverse incentives for local governments (such as shortening yellow light times to be able to issue more red light violations and collect more fines). Like my own state of Massachusetts¹, New Jersey bans automated enforcement. They’re now considering extending that idea with a proposed bill that would prevent the state government from sharing information with other states that do use automated enforcement.

That brings us back to the aforementioned nonsense. In retaliation for New Jersey potentially refusing to share driver information, New York state legislators are proposing a not-particularly-serious $50 fee for NJ drivers to enter New York. New Jersey legislators are countering with an even-less-serious proposal for a $100 fee for New Yorkers to drive into New Jersey. It’s all quite dumb, as New Jersey state Senator Declan O’Scanlon notes:

“It’s one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard. It will drive more people away from a city desperately trying to recover from COVID,” O’Scanlon told NJ Advance Media. “New Jersey bans automated enforcement because we know it doesn’t improve safety and is theft.”

O’Scanlon said New Jersey lawmakers could retaliate by proposing a $100 fee for New Yorkers to enter New Jersey. “It’s toll to enter NYC. If they want to go down this path … we’ll propose our own fee,” he said. “Let’s hold hands and demonstrate how stupid we are.”

That is an option, but it’s probably not the best one.

Footnotes:

1. While I’m very wary of the use of automated enforcement, Massachusetts has a very real and very dangerous problem with red light running. It’s the single biggest difference I notice driving here versus other places, and I sure do wish we could manage to correct it. ↩︎

Portable toilets spilling out over a highway is a mildly amusing story. However, it becomes worth a link when you get a quip like this:

One of the responding sheriff’s deputies could be heard on radio communications saying he was “responding to that crappy situation.”

Nicely done! That is why you don’t shoot the deputy.

Thanks to friend-of-the-site Colin T., I learned about this supposed big fan of big fans. Unfortunately for the unnamed trespasser, his supposed avocation led to him getting trapped for multiple days, ultimately necessitating a rescue by the authorities.

“The man indicated he liked to take pictures of the engines of old farm equipment,” the statement said. “After a thorough investigation, which revealed the farm equipment wasn’t antique and the man had far more methamphetamine than camera equipment, the motivation to climb into the fan shaft remains a total mystery.”

It’s almost always possible to inject a little levity, no matter what your job is.

Speaking of New York City, a wind turbine came crashing down in the Bronx on Monday. Fortunately, no one was injured. Even better, the story gave us this quote:

• A wind turbine shouldn’t be taken down by the wind.

It’s hard to argue with that.

Attorney Christopher G. Hook went more than a little overboard in threatening opposing counsel. The story of his menacing emails is somewhat disturbing, but the way the Washington Post summarized onne line gave me a good laugh.

• “Haha,” he said. “F— you crooks.” He then told the attorneys to eat a bowl of male genitalia.

Perhaps. Alternately, he was instructing them to eat a bowl of detectives. Or perhaps he wanted them to consume a bowl of men named Richard.

A New Zealand man wound up in the hospital after an explosion on his boat. Paramedic Chris Deacon described the incident thusly:

“[The man] smelt gas and confirmed that there was gas by lighting a match. Which is a very tried and true method of finding gas. Unfortunately, it is not a very good method.”

Well-put, Mr. Deacon.