FAIL. What the heck kind of message is that? That’s the message I have been given by my parents since I was a kid and exactly what they have expected from me. But that’s not important. This isn’t therapy, after all, but thanks for thinking of my self esteem anyway.
Okay, Arlington Parking folks – let’s get this straight right now. “Fail” is more of a command than a stated condition. It should say FAILED. I understand there are not enough spots on that little display to insert six letters but perhaps you can figure out how to squeeze in a fifth character there and spell BROKE.
After all, to most people in the area, “broke” is the past tense of break. To me and my people, “broke” is an adjective. We have both yankees and southerners here, so this word will work fine with both populations. I might even say damned yankees if I were just a few miles away, in Fairfax County, but yankees rarely seem to catch that reference and it falls completely flat here in Arlington.
Best of all – BROKE won’t drive any of us broke with increased trips to the therapist, the way a command to under perform will. And those therapists are mostly damned yankees anyway.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
