Childhood Disappointment

When I was a kid I really wanted a most awesome remote controlled car. It had to be fast. And the remote, decked out with a miniature steering wheel and a trigger to control acceleration and a little button to control forward and reverse had to be really, really powerful, because since the car was just so awesomely fast a less powerful controller would end up out of range of the car too soon.

And flames. It had to have flames.

Then my parents got me a remote controlled car. Only, it wasn't most awesome. It was green and without flames. And the only way to make it change direction was to press a button on the remote that made it back up in a circle and release the button when the car was pointing in the right direction. Oh, and the controller didn't have to have very good range because I think I could have overtaken the car just by walking at a very slow pace.

Don't get me wrong. I appreciated the fact that my parents got me the car. But it wasn't the one I wanted, which I'm sure was far more expensive and way outside of their budget. Thing is, with hindsight now at my side, I guess I would have rather they not spend any money on it at all, because that twenty dollar toy certainly didn't bring me all the joy I hoped my dream car would and the way the thing sucked D-cells dry I'm pretty sure for a brief period of time we were nicely padding the pensions of quite a few Duracell execs.

Which all kind of reminds me of this little plan by Milwaukee Mayor Barrett to placate the needs of all the railies out there. Learn from my experience, Mr. Mayor. Don't set yourself up for ultimate disappointment. Save yourself the twenty bucks.

Or, in this case, the $45 million.