The garbage strike is on!

I'm glad I don't have to be anywhere near the discussion table. Teamsters going up against mafia-owned waste management companies... *shudder*. All I know is that the alleys are overflowing with glorious trash!

The citizenry are aghast. They cannot deal with the reality of their own waste. "It's a health hazard!" they cry. Why, because of rats? New Yorkers bitten by rats in 1998: 184. New Yorkers bitten by other New Yorkers in 1998: 1102. I find it hilarious that our rodent friends are used as a scapegoat, when the real problem is that people buy, consume, and dispose way too much.

Townships are trying to force the garbagemen to work. Municipal workers can't do it- the problem is not collection, but rather that the transfer and dumping sites are shut down. And all of the stoopers in the city, the thousands who have come to realize that paying for stuff is for chumps because it's free round back, we are having a field day.