:: A City Council ordinance passed on this date in 1975 expressly prohibited the “display of images of a licentious, erotic, salient or pornographic nature, or which otherwise arouse the prurient interest for the sole purpose of titillation†on children’s metal lunchboxes.
:: The Seventh of the Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes was committed on this day in 1968.
:: Number of regular weekly Farmer’s Markets (regulated) within city limits: 12
:: Number of regular weekly Farmer’s Markets (regulated) within city limits three years ago: 4
:: Number of stands where it’s just guys selling produce streetside: At least 47 (according to a story this week by the Clarion-Journal)
:: Number of these out of a station wagon: 10
:: Number of these out of a van: 22
:: Number of these out of an old ice cream truck: 1
:: Number of vacant lots/properties being used for farming, under the city’s new UrbanFarm program: 18
:: When First Amendment activists blocked a 1979 attempt by the City Council to pass an ordinance against the sale and display of shirts bearing the legend “FBI: Federal Breast Inspector,†the City Council successfully retaliated by passing a different ordinance requiring three-hundred hours of qualification course work and a $500 fee for a Breast Inspector License. Individuals wearing the shirt but not bearing the license were fined under false advertising and Impersonation of Authority laws.
:: A city ordinance passed in 1881 prohibits the demolition of churches, cathedrals or opium dens “by hand.â€
:: The Augenblick Trust lost its lease on a pair of warehouses by the Mean Harbor pier district, meaning that its collection of more than seven hundred parade floats and displays dating back through fifty years of local history will be put up for auction or destroyed this weekend. Collectors are eagerly looking forward to the impending sale of such artifacts as the 30-ft papier-mâché squid carried by volunteers at the 1961 parade honoring Marianas Trench explorers Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh.
– Jon Morris, RJ White