Irony Supplement, Part 7
Uncle Andrew
I took this picture at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, a not-for-profit wildlife parklet outside of Yellowstone. It’s part of a small gallery of so-called “bear-proof” refuse containers, all of which have had a serious can of ursine whoop-ass opened on them.
The fact that this particular container—ahem—”bears” the URL of the manufacturer makes it even ironicer. Er, more ironicer. Whatever. This particular model is even featured on the home page of bearproofsystems.com’s Web site.
What I’d like to know is: just what made the manufacturer think that adding a thin metal collar around the lid of a plastic trash can would suffice to prevent something as large and powerful as a grizzly from getting into it? Hell, I think I might be able to give that thing a run for its money, if I thought it contained a pic-a-nic basket.
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August 4th, 2005 at 5:18 am
It is hard to do a forensic analysis based on a single picture but I think I can see the design flaw. It looks like the latch and rim did their job but the bear cleverly found a weak spot in the hinge. To be honest, I think this image depicts hubris instead of irony. On the other hand, I suppose that one could use the damage to this garbage can as proof of bears. That would be ironic.
As for you giving the can a run for its money, you have an unfair advantage being smarter than the average bear, or even the top fifteenth percentile.
August 4th, 2005 at 7:24 am
Smartass. 😀