Word Of the Day Challenge: NEWSPAPER

Photo A.M. Moscoso

The last time I remember seeing a newspaper in one of those plastic stands that use to dot street corners and stand in front of grocery stores was in 1999.

I remember it because that was when we had the WTO protests in Seattle and after the pepper spray and dust had settled, the free newespaper were flying out of those little plastic stands like crazy-the free papers were carrying a lot of stories about WTO and not many of the articles about the the Seattle Police Department or the local government’s response was what one could call favorable.

So, I was waiting for my bus when a Cop on horseback rode buy and his horse relived himself near the curb.

The cop got off and cleaned up after his horse. I thought that was pretty cool because dog walkers didn’t always do that and horses leave a bigger mess.

What wasn’t cool was that he went to one of the plastic paper stands, which as I mentioned housed a paper that was critical of SPD and he was about to shove his horse’ pile of poop into it when he saw me and a few people at the bus stop across the street.

Now keep in mind this was before youtube and social media and tik tok. He could have shoved that wad off horse poo in there and if we had said anything about it, he could have easily said he and his horse had been framed.

Instead,  let the lid on the stand close and then he went to a garbage can and put the horse mess where it belonged. I’m not sure why he didn’t carry through on his plan to turn a paper stand he didn’t think much of into a toilet- but to this day I remain curious.

There were probably newspaper stands all around me after that, but I don’t remember them. This one, I will always remember.

Photo A.M. Moscoso