Annoying Things!

HIDDEN SIGNAGE - Driving highways, byways and especially the side streets of Queens, one cannot help but notice the growing number of important signs that are obscured by all types of vegetation.
Tree limbs full of green leaves, untrimmed bushes, hedges and even plain old weeds hide important and necessary speed limit, exit, caution, curve and stop signs all over the place. The real problem is that no one agency is charged with fixing the problem.
Call 311?
Sure, and wait up to 10 years for that offending tree limb to be pruned.
Call the Highways Department? They cannot even clean up the graffiti or garbage strewn along the roadways, so what are they going to do with overgrown underbrush? Try ringing the doorbell of the homeowner whose hedges are blocking that corner stop sign? You might learn some new expletives.
In the mean time, drive slower, and always in the right lane. Be prepared to turn - &#8220Back there, Honey,” as my wife always says.
STATUE OF LIBERTY - Speaking of signage, the &#8220Do Not Enter” signs at our nation's symbol of freedom - The Statue of Liberty - are an outrage.
We all dug deeply when then Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca asked us to help refurbish the Lady of the Harbor for her 100th birthday.
The Statue was closed following the horror of 9/11, but reopened on August 3 of 2004. Security was appropriately intensified to protect our best-known icon of freedom.
Passengers were all but strip-searched before boarding the boats for the breezy trip to Liberty Island. Pocketbooks, backpacks, briefcases, camera bags and shopping bags were thoroughly searched. Visitors were even required to remove their belts before moving through the super-sensitive metal detectors.
Upon arrival on the Island they found that you can safely purchase an extremely bad hamburger, greasy fries and a cup of rotgut coffee at the concession counters but you cannot enter the Statue.
You can walk around it. You can have your photo taken in front of the Statue - outside of course. You can wait in line to view the museum in the pedestal base but you cannot enter the interior with its circular single-file stairs or go up into crown that used to accommodate 30 people at a time.
Fran Mainella, the National Park Service Director, who gives Homeland Security Boss Michael Chertoff a run for pea-brained bureaucrat of the century, has decreed that the crown and interior of the statue will remain closed indefinitely.
Outrageous!
Do whatever it takes - tighten the Park Service Security - check everybody's belongings, cameras, bags, pocketbooks etc. - for a fee, to pay for the added security - but reopen the Statue.
Give us back our symbol of freedom and liberty - our Statue of Liberty.