Weird Laws in New York City, South Carolina and Elsewhere

Every week I seem to find that I am shaking my head more than the week before at the weird laws I keep finding. When I first started writing about weird laws, I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to find enough new material to write about. However, that fear was quickly quelled. I learned that given the chance, people will make sure that there are enough weird laws to go around. Criminals will be criminals, lawyers will be lawyers and in general, people will most often act without thinking ensuring that the flow of weird laws will not be interrupted. However as much material as there is out, I think I am most amazed at how often new weird laws come into being. 

On top of this, I am a bit more perplexed at how often and how hard the lawmakers seem work to create new weird laws. I mean, it really seems to me that there is a secret committed that has to review proposed legislation and I am starting to believe they have a stamp that is frequently used which reads, “This isn’t WEIRD enough – revise and resubmit.” Either this or a large group of lawmakers have switched from decaf to 80 proof. So, in the spirit of legislative action, I thought I would talk about a couple of just plain silly legislative proposals. 

Readers will recall that not too long ago I discussed the ban on the sale of foie gras in Chicago. As bizarre as I found this legislative action (or even why you would have to legislate to keep people away from liver!), it seems that New York City got all of their bureaucrats together and discussed what action they could take to one up the city of Chicago’s ban on fatty livers. I will give it to New York City they have done just that in proposing a weird law of their own. The New York City Department of Health has proposed a ban on trans fats, you know the pesky fat this comes when oil is partially hydrogenated for increased shelf life. It keeps longer, but is a bit hard on the heart. 

Weird laws

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