A useless invention.

It would be hard to imagine many things as useless as this.This is the new style picnic table located at Princes Island Park in Calgary.As you can see,it's made from a bunch of metal strips welded together.I guess someone found the need to re invent the wheel.They should go back to the drawing board.For as long as I can remember,picnic tables were made out of wood.A few boards nailed or bolted together.Not exactly rocket science.You could make one with minimal skills and a few tools in an afternoon,and it would last for a few decades at least.Oh sure,the ants would gnaw away at it on their way to your bucket of fried chicken,but generally it would last a long time.I guess the main advantage to this thing is that ants don't eat it at all.But who knows,metal devouring insects might not be far off if we keep pouring crap into the environment,so I guess the guy who invented this thing was thinking ahead.As you will note,this is really only half a picnic table,so it fits right in with the Alberta core value of austerity,even when that value isn't especially called for.Indeed,if we are going to have half the need schools and half the needed hospitals,we should be cutting down on park facilities as well.Looking ahead again-you just never know when the price of oil might drop to,oh say four dollars a barrel and Alberta will have already instituted the needed restraint.Good idea...wish I'd thought of it.

Princes Island Park is one of the places in Calgary that I actually find inspiring.And truth be told,there aren't that many other places in this city.I sometimes like to sit down at a picnic table and write out some of the preparations for this blog,as well as some other things.That used to work out fine on the old style tables,but this thing is useless.It doesn't form a hard surface across it's entire surface area.I came across the an artist trying to draw a tree who noticed pretty much the same thing.And while I didn't see anyone complaining about it's usefulness as a place to picnic,right away I can see certain disadvantages.Those spaces between the actual pieces of the table are just the right to allow hot dogs to roll onto the ground.But hey,maybe that will keep the ants off of the table.Not as much surface to catch bird droppings either,so I guess you only need to clean it half as often.But the grapes I brought for my snack just keep rolling to the ground.On the other hand,it is kind of hard to steal.The old ones could be carried away in the middle of the night by,say two dozen grunting,sweating thieves,to their waiting getaway two ton truck parked a mile or two away-it is an island after all.

I say bring back the old style tables and let the guy who invented this thing get along with the business of inventing.How much longer are we going to have to get along without the important things he might invent.Like mesh condoms or barnacle covered toilet paper or some other such thing.