Dibs

I drove around the city a bit tonight. On the expressways there are no shoulders anymore. What formerly were shoulders are now massive snow walls. So when a car stalls - and I saw at least 4 of them stalled - it ends up blocking much of a lane.

On the city streets, parking remains messy. A lot of cars are still "snowed in" as we say. Many of those are "plowed in", because when the plow came by and pushed the snow away from the center of the street, the snow went onto the parked cars.

Some of the people who have dug out are using the "dibs" system. That's where you claim temporary ownership of the space you dug out. You put a plastic lawn chair or something in your "spot" that you have "dibs on". If anyone else parks in that spot, bad things may happen to their car. It's street justice of a cold variety.

This system creates increased incentive to dig your car out. The city tolerates it. Up to a point. One day the mayor will announce "no more dibs," and the garbage trucks will start hauling away any remaining plastic chairs. As a sort of property right that expires, I suppose this resembles patents and copyrights.

But unlike patent law,
dibs disappear with the thaw.