Is a cat park coming to Annapolis?
In the continuing spirit of having my readers do the work for me (we call that "Civic Journalism"), I'm asking anybody who knows or who can find out to tell me whether the following is legit:
A woman in Annapolis has announced the planned opening of an Annapolis "cat park."
Another April Fools' joke, or reality?
An email from Roxanne Bendel, who says she's from the Curbside Recycling of Annapolis Pet Project -- which, though she doesn't point it out, would be CRAPP -- says the park would be opened on the 200 block of West Street, on the site of the old Evening Capital Newspaper building.
A Googling of said address revealed it to be a lot that is for sale for $6.6 million and is considered one of the last developable tracts of land within the Uptown area. A Googling of Roxanne Bendel resulted in nothing being found. The phone number supplied by Bendel was a non-working number.
A return email to Bendel, requesting a good phone number, was answered with a flier that touted the 1.4-acre park as a place to "socialize and exercise your cat and meet other cat-lovers" with "separate exercise areas for small and large cats." It also mentioned trees for climbing, nesting sparrows and organic sandboxes.
The email said the creation of the park would ease complaints about the land's maintenance and upkeep.
I'm pretty sure CRAPP is just that. But maybe some our Annapolis readers could fill us in on "Roxanne Bendel" and what's behind the apparent prank.
And Roxanne -- if that really is your name -- remember, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Mutts readers, as we are highly intelligent and have dogs, some of them big.
Comments
Well, John, I hope you ran a Google on just the word "CRAPP." I did, and it took me to a site where I could purchase the CRAPP family crest, CRAPP armorial history, and even CRAPP products. I really need more CRAPP, so I had a look and found I could get CRAPP key rings, CRAPP coffee mugs, CRAPP mouse pads, CRAPP ceramics--indeed, a dozen or more CRAPP items. There are even CRAPP downloads. I'm sorry I can't help you with your community journalism, but I do suggest that you navigate right over and stock up on your own pile of CRAPP.
Posted by: Anne | April 1, 2008 2:41 PM
Anne,
I think what you did was a perfect example of civic journalism in action. For you seem to have truly uncovered a huge load of CRAPP, and dumped it on readers, thereby making my blogg evern more full of crapp than it already was. Thanks so much for your efforts. You've helped make this the CRAPP-iest April Fools Day ever!
Posted by: john woestendiek | April 1, 2008 2:53 PM
Well, I'm supposed to be accomplishing meaningful work this afternoon, but as I went downstairs for a coffee and let the dog out to take care of his own business, it occurred to me that there's already an awful lot of CRAPP in Annapolis. And unlike dogs, politicians don't have devoted humans following them with scoopers and plastic bags to clean up. Perhaps a monument to CRAPP in our capital city isn't such a bad idea.
Posted by: Anne | April 1, 2008 3:19 PM