post preapproval removal

Wait just a New York minute. Maybe "Everyone is approved here!!!" is no longer true [three exclamation marks]. [See my post of July 30, 2014.]

This afternoon, I saw a man at Floyd Creaser Quality Used Cars move the sandwich board that shouts "Everyone is approved here!!!" He moved it away from its location alongside Hiawatha Boulevard, to -- where? Inside? Out back? To the dust bin of history?

It's not as if the proprietor or manager would be closing the shop on a Saturday afternoon, since one would assume that Saturday afternoon (great song by Jefferson Airplane) offers primetime used-car salesmanship hours. Right?

So, what was going on?

• Had the owner read this blog? Unlikely.
• Was he cranky, not feeling very approvalish?
• Had Fox News alerted him to the arrival of an unpreapproved busload of unpreapproved-by-Tea-Party immigrant children?
• Was the meaning of the word "everyone" now being modified, qualified, and calibrated by a freight train's worth of adjectives or adverbs?
• Was the sign merely being brought in for a wash?
• Most ominously, did the person moving the sandwich-board sign know something about credit markets that we don't know?

'Everyone is approved here!!!'

At Floyd Creaser Quality Used Cars, along Hiawatha Boulevard, in Syracuse, an A-frame sandwich board all but shouts, "Everyone is approved here!!!" I get that the declaration is an invitation to buy. I get that it says, in effect, "No matter what your financial history is, no matter how reckless or foolish or disastrous, we can lend you the money to buy a vehicle." I suspect such generosity has its own price. And rewards.

Which got me to thinking.

Imagine if "Everyone is approved here!!!" referred to real people! What if actual living humans were accepted here just as unconditionally and with the elan of three exclamation points as a used-car dealer? Just think. "Everyone is approved here!!!" could be a statement of credit beyond financial history, and instead it could apply to personal misdeeds and waywardness.

This is especially intriguing given that Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner recently expressed a willingness on behalf of our community to accept immigrant children. It made national news. Some people hate the idea; others applaud it.

"Everyone is approved here!!!"

Food for thought.

Carry on.

As you were.