Monday, June 23, 2008
Road signs usually are renewed or recycled
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
Recent columns
Q: You recently wrote about road signs being replaced. What happens to the old signs. Is it possible to buy them?
-- George Bronson, Roanoke
A: It looks like the sign makers are more likely to reuse or recycle than to retail their old signs.
"Depending on the condition of the sign blank and the type of material used to make the sign, they can be reused by applying new sheeting material onto the old sign blank," explained Mark Jamison, Roanoke's manager of transportation. "If the sign is damaged and cannot be reused, the aluminum is recycled."
At the Virginia Department of Transportation, they pile up such signs for a couple of months and then sell them to a recycler, according to VDOT spokesman Jason Bond.
"Last year, VDOT in our 12-county region received about $30,000 back from recycling aluminum," wrote Bond.
Q: Where did the term "flea market" originate?
-- Barry Moran, Rocky Mount
A: It appears to have started in France.
The Oxford English Dictionary gives us the French term "marche aux puces."
The first recorded use of the phrase in English, was in G.S. Dougherty's 1922 book, "In Europe." In this book he writes: "It is called the 'Flea' Market because there are so many second hand articles sold of all kinds that they are believed to gather fleas."
But I think Dougherty got it backwards. Surely they called it a flea market because the secondhand items were suspected of already having fleas upon them.
Either way, the French are still using "marche aux puces" and Americans don't seem to mind having a secondhand term for our sprawling sales of old videotapes, NASCAR items, socks, Happy Meal toys, junk and wolf figurines.
Q: Did Dickey's Barbecue Pit on Main Street in Salem close for good?
-- Ed Brown, Salem
A: Sorry, folks, I got scooped on this one. I stopped by Dickey's to see what was up about a week ago. But before I found out anything, Roanoke Times business reporter Jenny Kincaid Boone posted an entry about it on her Roanoke.com blog, The Storefront (blogs.roanoke.com/storefront).
There are plans to reopen, but no fixed date yet, she wrote. You can read more about it at the above address.
Meanwhile, the phone's disconnected and the Salem location isn't even listed on Dickey's corporate Web site. Luckily, Salem's not hurting for barbecue, with Henry's Memphis BBQ at 1122 W. Main St. and Bastian's Bar-B-Q at 1002 Apperson Drive near the intersection with Electric Road.
Q: I recently bought a card game called Flinch at a yard sale. It's a Parker Brothers game with sets of cards from 1 to 15, but there are no instructions as how to play the game and no production date.
-- Wanda Beasley, Hillsville
A: Because Flinch was made by Parker Brothers, which is now owned by Hasbro, you can download the instructions from www.hasbro.com, along with the rules for many other games such as Bridge, Hearts, Rook and dozens of Monopoly variations.
Go to customer service, then choose toy and game instructions. Then search for Flinch and choose the correct Flinch version. Yours appears to be an older version, so try downloading the Flinch 1963 rules.
According to these rules, you can also use the deck to play several other games, including one called "Muggins," in which players challenge each other by calling out "Muggins."
That was a simpler time wasn't it? Can you imagine today's youth sitting around a table saying "Muggins"?
If you have questions, send them in to woym@roanoke.com or leave them on my voice mail at 777-6476 (please be sure to speak clearly and spell your name). I'll need your name, location and phone number or e-mail address.
Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
