Will cars some day be so rare they are like coin-op riding dinosaurs found in the mall?

Ottawa has very few KFC’s in operation, and they were of the past-their-best-before date design: gaudy stripes, the rotating bucket …  I certainly don’t recall seeing ones branded quite so nicely as this one. And, BTW, it is Kitchen Fresh Chicken, fried being a concept that has gone a bit rancid.

We are at the blissful, idealistic, utopian stage of encouraging food trucks and street vendors. Later, what’cha get are hamburger stands enlivened with wide-screen outdoor TV’s.

Given Ottawa’s generally dull architecture and desperate mandate of conformity, don’t rock the boat-ism, this ice cream stand becomes a visual treat. Imagine, a building not made out of black or dull brick.

Collecting cigarette butts in a park is noble. Here it is rationalized as being good for the fish. In Ottawa’s new LRT stations, the City has decided against putting out butt collectors (outside, of course) because that somehow enables the bad habit. Tsch tsch. Instead, we will employ adults with brooms to sweep them up. I hope.

Or maybe they will become as characteristic of Ottawa as those sculptures we install along streets – majestic forest tree trunks linked to other ones with wires.

And for the squeamish who don’t want to stoop and scoop, even with the government supplied bags, a scoop dispenser. Yet to come: hand sanitizer for dog walkers.