Sunday, August 12, 2007

boo-coo bucks

Last year, the city of Chicago collected $210 million in parking tickets and other car-related fines. Un-be-liev-able. And as a side note, we McKays have contributed about $300 to this heartless source of city revenue (3 parking tickets for parking in a "no parking between 3am-7am" zone in the winter [I totally misread the sign], 1 for parking on a street during a street cleaning, and 3 tickets for not having a front license plate, which we remedied in May). Sigh.

And another astounding number is that of revenue from drivers caught on camera running red lights: in 2003, $45,660; in 2006 (a mere 3 years time span!), $19.8 million.

BTW--how does one spell boo-coo?

7 comments:

  1. "beaucoup"

    It's one of those crazy French words, so I thought "annie(whowas)infrance" should provide the answer. :)

    Sorry about the parking tickets. When I get one, I always feel I shouldn't have to pay it, since I didn't break the law knowingly. Sigh. And then I write a check.

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  2. Yep. Annie is right! :) Beaucoup. :) But the energy drink is BooKoo. haha.

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  3. Oh dear...I bet I'd have one for running the red light. I'm waiting to get one here. :)

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  4. Is it actually pronounced "boo-coo"? Or is that the way Americans have, er, butchered the proper pronunciation? I'm thinking of "merci beaucoup," the second word of which is pronounced "bow-coo," isn't it?

    My mom used to fuss about the way I said "boo-coo," because she said that the pronunciation made me sound ignorant. But I say now that if you're doing it deliberately, it's okay. :)

    (As long as you know the correct way to say "Blagojevich," right, Suz"?)

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  5. Sounds like my introduction to the OC--I got a parking ticket for the street sweeper, for parking an inch to far from the curb, and for parking too much on the curve of the cul-de-sac at the end of the road, but having no other option (no driveway or garage space at my little studio apt.) I had to squeeze my little Tiburon in wherever I could fit it--or just sleep in it at night, so I could keep moving whenever the ticket patrol came on the prowl :o)

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  6. Just a little side note on "beaucoup". Our local coffee shop (which by the way beats Starbucks hands down!) is currently called Beaners, unfortunately they will soon be changing their name to BEAUCOUP because apparently a "Beaner" is a derogatory word for Mexican?!?! Who Knew?!

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  7. fyi - you can fight the 3 tickets for the front plate if you haven't already paid them and they were given in less than a weeks time. they'll only make you pay one since one week isn't enough amount of time to get it taken care of. my roommate fought 3 tickets he got in 5 days due to expired plates and only had to pay one of them. it's prolly too late, but i thought i would pass that on.

    -andy gosling

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