OFF: Deviant Subversive Behavior!!

[J Strobridge]

> >
> Didja know that to operate a motor vehicle in the grand state of Tejas,
> one must have a person 100 feet in front of said vehicle waving a red
> flag, or, at night, a lantern? I think that you need to do the same at
> the rear of your vehicle.
>

I've only just discovered to my delight that the oh-so-long-established-
staid-official-body the Automobile Association (The AA, in this country)
started its life in around 1909 as a group of car-owning members who
paid folk to ride around the countryside on bicycles and warn drivers
whenever there was a speed trap ahead - the police at that time were
insisting on a rigid speed limit of 20mph and they would lurk behind
bushes with stopwatches setting traps for folk!    Anyhow these elite
members of society organised themselves into an official body to try and
subvert this and were extremely successful.    Eventually they were
warned that they were almost certainly breaking the law, so instead
they arranged for all their officials to wear a uniform and salute drivers
as they drove past if there were no speed traps ahead.   However, as
they also carefully explained to all car drivers, if you did not get a
salute then you could be sure that there was some sort of check point
ahead and slowed down!

I would never have guessed this one.    The prestigious Automobile
Association as a subversive organisation....  8-)

jill
You'd Better Believe It / It's so Easy to Say
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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at castle.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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