I remember and old episode

 of 'Car 54 where are you?" that still makes me laugh today when I think about it.

My memory on the details isn't 100% clear but the gist of it was that there was no crime in their beat to speak of and that they were going to transfer Gunther and Francis to anothe beat. They were also going to give them an award because the neighborhood was pretty crime free.

The people on the beat were up in arms about it and as usual the powers that be were all confused about things.

One of the locals told the precinct captain that the reason for no crime was that the locals handled it.

"Someone tried to rob my house wares store and Guiseppe the deli guy saw him and sneaked up behind him and whacked him on the head with a sausage. We dragged him six blocks away and dumped him in an alley. When someone else tried to rob Guiseppe I threw a sheet over his head and Guiseppe whacked him and we hauled him off. Cops have better things to do than this."

One woman added "When you're expecting they are always within shouting distance to take you to the hospital."

About half the neighborhood chimed in with something or another that Gunther and Francis did to make the neighborhood a nicer place to live. Much of it was what people would consider stupid stuff.

"Francis shares his wife's recipes with my wife. She sure knows how to make a good ham loaf! It's delicious and cheap, too."

Of course the flabberghasted precinct captain decided the best course of action was to leave things just as they were. After all, there was no trouble in the neighborhood and maybe the best thing to do was leave things alone.  

While the episode was probably quite unrealistic there really were a couple of points.

First, if something works, leave it alone.

Second, you can't beat grass roots efforts of people that are friends and neighbors.

Third, sometimes the right person for the right job comes aolng and while it may not make sense to you, it may very well make sense to a lot of other people...especially the people using the service.

Fourth they don't make things like that as funny as they used to.



To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY