Buy a hole in Germany

[oggbashan]

The German village of Niederzimmern has a problem with potholes in its roads.

It has come up with a novel solution. You can buy a pothole, have it repaired and they will put your name on it. It's a bargain at fifty euros.

This is their website. Scroll down for the offer in English:

http://www.niederzimmern.de/index02.htm

Og

 

[PoppingTom]

...saxons are funny guys....even made a song about potholes....

"Now we got our own walk of fame
we don't have to feel ashamed
I drive out of our place and felt good
And it makes CRACK.....

This was a pothoooooole...."

 

[The_Fool]

Had to go look. Bittersweet memories of Germany. Never went to this burg that I remember. Looks more like it was in the old East Germany, which I never visited.

 

[PoppingTom]

Tell me something about this burg, maybe I know....

 

[R. Richard]

The German village of Niederzimmern has a problem with potholes in its roads.

It has come up with a novel solution. You can buy a pothole, have it repaired and they will put your name on it. It's a bargain at fifty euros.

Og

I understand that there's a darker side to the offer. If you live in the Niederzimmern area and DON'T buy a pothole, they put your name on a Trabbi. (Just a rumour.)

 

[imalickin]

If I buy a pothole I would want to keep it a pothole! I would want to put a fence around it to keep tires and things out of "my" pothole. Although I would like it to maybe expand it and subdivide if that was possible.

Or maybe I could sublet it to some poor out of work german person.

 

[oggbashan]

They have already sold 111 potholes.

How many are left? They're checking.

In my town there must be a thousand. Two teams are working six days a week and are losing, as more potholes keep appearing.

Og

 

[mynameisben]

What the buy-a-pothole program really amounts to is a tax on the stupid. I've always believed everyone is entitled to be stupid, but they don't get to be stupid for free. Apparently, the township of Niederzimmern and I are of like mind.

I applaud their initiative, though. In fact, I would fly over to Germany right now and shake the mayor's hand, but my financial situation makes that impossible at present. I leant all my money to ducks.

 

[oggbashan]

The idea isn't new. The application to potholes is.

Among my paperwork I have recent certificates to prove:

1. I've sponsored some seafront light bulbs in Bognor Regis,

2. I've sponsored two boxes of special storage for archaelogical finds in East Sussex,

3. I've sponsored a plank on Southend Pier and another on Penarth Pier,

4. I've sponsored three railway sleepers on a preserved steam railway in Dorset,

All except the light bulbs have got my real name on them.

My wife has several fridge magnets from Oxfam for sponsorship of donkeys, cows, agricultural tools, chickens etc.

But I haven't sponsored a pothole yet. I've reported many, chased the road authorities to get them fixed, even, when younger, filled in some myself - but I've never bought one.

If I do, it won't be a German pothole.

Og

 

[Handley_Page]

Suggest to your local authority that they might adopt the scheme.

 

[oggbashan]

Suggest to your local authority that they might adopt the scheme.

I have. I've done it before - for festive lighting, for street signs, for bits of the piers in Kent. Apart from the last, nothing happened.

Og

 

[PoppingTom]

If I do, it won't be a German pothole.

But we got the better potholes. We even sing about them......

 

[oggbashan]

But we got the better potholes. We even sing about them......

The Beatles sang about them first.


Wikipedia about Blackburn: Blackburn is mentioned in the The Beatles song "A Day in the Life". An article in the Daily Mail about a plan to fill potholes in the town caught John Lennon's eye as he was writing the song, giving birth to the lyric "I read the news today oh boy. 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. And though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all. Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall." The title of the unofficial fanzine of the town's football club, Blackburn Rovers, is 4,000 Holes.

Og