A New York Twist On A Midwest Icon

On occasion I like to plop down in front of my TV and watch game shows like Cash Cab just to reinforce my belief that there really are a lot of stupid people out there. It's actually a pretty good show (as game shows go) but it certainly doesn't hold a candle to quiz show king Jeopardy!.

For those of you unfamiliar with Cash Cab it is, simply put, a game show that takes place inside a cab on the streets of New York City. The host asks a series of increasingly harder questions to their startled fares and hilarity ensues. Along the way, if the contestants need help with an answer they can use a "Street Shout Out" whereupon they ask someone on the sidewalk for help.

The following is what took place on one of yesterday's Street Shout Outs:

Q: Named for the Senator who proposed it, what kind of savings plan results in tax-free income after retirement?

Person On The Sidewalk: God, who would it be? (long pause) Wellstone! The Wellstone savings plan. Paul Wellstone. He's dead...but he's a socialist.

I'm not even going to comment about the simplicity of the question asked, the stupidity of the answer given or even the incongruousness of associating something even remotely classified as "tax-free" with Paul Wellstone and/or socialists.

No, what I think is hilarious is the fact that for a random pedestrian on a sidewalk in New York the name Paul Wellstone is immediately associated with socialism. If only the folks around these parts could be so honest. In fact, I think I've just discovered a way to give some freshness to all of those old green Wellstone! bumper stickers we seem to find on every other car here in Minnesota.

Picture this on a bumper in front of you:

Wellstone! He's dead...but he's a socialist.

Personally, I'd find it very refreshing if I thought the guy ahead of me driving the rusted Volvo well below the posted speed limit with his back windshield covered with snow and his muffler dragging on the pavement fully realized that his bumper sticker honored a man who was not only five years removed from life on the oxygen rich side of our earth's surface but who also did not believe in capitalism, private property rights or individual freedom.