Have you ever heard a story that makes you shake your head and say, “What were they thinking?” I remember years ago reading about a man who’s ladder was too short? Thinking he’d paint the rear eaves of the house anyway, he tied one end of the rope around his waist then threw the rope over the roof and tied the other end to the car rear bumper in the front driveway. You guessed it. The wife needed something at the store. She came out the house, hopped in the car and promptly put her foot to the metal and took off for the market.

The man immediately went airborne as he catapulted over the house fell two stories and was dragged down the street. He was finally noticed by his wife when she happened to look in the rear view mirror as he dodged manhole covers and bounced off curbs. Do I dare make the pun, that despite his injuries, he additionally got the shingles when he face planted across the roof?

Now it seems the same mentality of “good ideas” is running the city government in Detroit. News reports Monday said despite the fact that the city water and sewer department had no horses, it employs a Horseshoer. The job description according to the city is “to shoe horses and to do general blacksmith work … and to perform related work as required.” This description was last updated in 1967.

Yet even with a city so in the red that it is teetering on bankruptcy, it has a horseshoer and no horses. The local union president when pressed said about the job, “it is not possible” to eliminate the position.

A freedom of information request showed the city is not horsing around when it comes to the salary either. It pays $56,245 annually in salary and benefits for this one horseless job. I think the city of Detroit needs a better proofreader in the office. They’ve proven the old adage is true, “there’s a fool born every minute. Sadly, they think the second ‘o’ in the word fool is an ‘a’.