Dancing in the Streets

Fort Collins has what I consider a highly unusually phenomenon that happens on a daily basis.  I know that each and every one of you has seen sidewalk sign holders here and there in large cities, or at the very least has seen Justin Timberlake's take on sidewalk advertising with his hilarious skits on Saturday Night Live- Omletteville, Soup (There it is), and Plasticville.  If not....

Bring it on in to Ometteville...

Our city of 150,000 seems to LOVE this type of advertising.  On an average day, on an average drive, I will see at least 5 sidewalk/road corner sign holders.  I only drive 5 miles to work folks.  That's one per mile!

And they don't just stand there.  Much like Justin, they DANCE!  Every once in a while you will see someone who is just twirling their sign, looking very bored, smoking a cigarette.  More often then not, the hiring manager has struck gold with a person who has no qualms about strutting their stuff, with the sign serving as a favorite dance partner in a very public disco arenea. While waiting at stop lights I have witnessed renditions of Michael Jackson's "Thriller", Moon Walk, and "Beat It" Fight Scene.  I've seen Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies".  I've witnessed Saturday Night Fever.  More than once, I've been so transfixed by watching these signers groove that I completely forgot where I was at until the honking commenced to let me know that the signal had turned green.

While I find some of the most energetic signers mildly entertaining, my dog, Layla, HATES them.  More specifically, she hates the Liberty Tax signer that has been placed only a half a mile away from our place. Since January.  Every time we drive by and she's in the car, the hair on the back of her neck will bristle 5 seconds before she snarls and starts barking out the window.  This has happened everytime we've driven by.  Since January.  It was bad enough that we began distracting her and making sure that her window was raised when passing the Liberty Tax signer corner (which is on the main road we use to get anywhere so avoiding the corner entirely wasn't usually an option).

I'm not quite sure why she finds these guys threatning....

Ok- maybe I do.

Or maybe its just that Layla doesn't like taxes.  Or freedom.  Regardless, you can imagine the relief I had when driving by the corner of Drake and Shields to find the Liberty Tax signer dancing in the streets on Sunday, exuberantly waving a sign that read "The End is Near!"

While these foam statues disappear for 9 months, I will be on the lookout for new and exciting acts on my new route to my new job.  I'm guessing that we've got the cream of the crop of signers here in Fort Collins.  Not quite as proud of that fact as we are of our breweries, but it's definately something worth mentioning.