aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Trashy Wal-Mart in Athens

The Athens Banner-Herald has printed rejected letters “on the last day of the year for your entertainment.” Here’s one:

I couldn’t help noticing the other day that the trash cans outside the Wal-Mart bathroom are distinctly phallic in nature. I do not mean cylindrical or tubular, rather they are cylindrical and at the top have what appears to be a head - just like a penis.

How can this be an accident? What is next? Doors which resemble vaginas? Anus-shaped windows? I am disturbed by the sexualizing of American culture.

Please speak out against this rather than wasting your time writing about President Bush and his efforts, or lack thereof, to deal with Katrina. Frankly, virtually no one is listening to your lamentations concerning Katrina; it’s all happening 500 miles away. Take a stand on local issues.

J.G.

I’m not entirely convinced this letter would have been rejected in my town.

Thanks, Doug!