The City of Madison Police Department puts out a frequent publication that is known to many on campus. Picture the scenario- you have to run into a building, so you park at a metered space, look up and down the street, see no sign of life, and so instead of plugging the meter, you dash into the building, do your business and run back to the car only to find \The Parking Ticket.""
The author of this literary treasure has many strengths but also a few weaknesses in his or her (the author is infuriatingly anonymous) writing.
On the positive side, the author is able to concisely share information without a lot of time-wasting prose or excess verbiage. His/her sense of time and place is impeccable. In the case of a recent edition, the 600 block of Langdon Street, at 12:58 in the afternoon on a Tuesday.
The author is able, in a split second, to transport the reader back to that moment so clearly that the reader can picture the scene in his/her mind.
However, if the reader analyzes the material in ""The Parking Ticket,"" it is easy to surmise that the author is seething with pent-up rage, most likely due to an unhappy childhood caused by the fact that his or her parents never married.
The true identity of the writer behind ""The Parking Ticket"" is never known. The only reference in the piece is a four-digit number at the top of the citation, showing the fear and paranoia this person suffers from.
The author takes the reader on an emotional journey that starts the second this publication is spotted under the windshield wiper. The reader's heartbeat will accelerate and they will rush to their car, trying to guess at the outcome.
At first the reader will blindly hope ""The Parking Ticket"" is just a warning, but within seconds of perusing, the reader will realize this is not the case.
Some readers will fall into a pit of desolation at this point, others will become furious, loudly spewing epithets or gnashing their teeth. Whatever the outcome, ""The Parking Ticket"" is almost guaranteed to cause a highly charged emotional response.
The history of this piece is almost as rich and colorful as the actual piece itself. According to rumor, ""The Parking Ticket"" spawned the first public appearance of the F-word, early in the last century. And the second appearance. And the third.??
On the back side of ""The Parking Ticket"" are three paragraphs which are magnificently written and should be read slowly, so as to have a full appreciation of this piece. The first paragraph is called ""How to Pay a Parking Ticket,"" and will appeal primarily to those people who actually read the warning label on a hairdryer.
The second paragraph, ""How to Contest a Ticket,"" is also a fun, informative piece, and contains my favorite part of Parking Ticket. This paragraph tells the reader how to report a broken meter, which, while amusing, can also be a bit frustrating. If this information was just printed on the meter, the whole ticket could probably have been avoided in the first place.??
Finally, the last paragraph contains information of possible repercussions should the reader decide not to pay the ticket.
These repercussions include extra fines, suspension of registration or non-renewal of other vehicle's registration or towing of the vehicle-which could lead the reader to miss work, not get paid, fall behind on rent, get evicted and end up on the streets begging for the stupid quarter they should have used to plug the meter in the first place.
Although wanting for literary language and character development (or even character introduction), ""The Parking Ticket"" is an interesting read, a ""can't miss"" for those who own or operate a motor vehicle on campus.
