That is so funny! There are literally thousands of dumb laws still on the books, all over the world.
In fact, twenty something years ago, when I was moonlighting on an internet site called About.com ( I maintained and wrote for the About Horses site), I wrote an article called It’s the Law, Really! about dumb laws as they related to horses and horse riding.
That site was taken over in 2003 by Primedia, who published several equestrian magazines and had their own website called Equisearch.com. They rolled my content into their site and even kept me on as a contractor, still writing articles and running the discussion forum (as I could around my day job).
I just checked, and the article is still there, dated 2003 (when Equisearch rolled it in to their site) – although I wrote it on July 29, 2001.
I remember picking up a joke book in my youth which had a few dumb laws in it. I don’t remember some of the details, but I do remember a couple of the laws.
It was once against the law to talk to someone in town with grass between your teeth! I had to try that one!
In the Appalachians, it was against the law to have your wash tub in the front yard. This one didn’t make sense to me until we were driving in coal mining country and I noticed a family doing laundry in a giant cauldron over an open fire- in the front yard. Hey, if that’s where the hot water is…
And the piece de resistance…
In the Wild West, it was against the law to put your horse in your bath tub! But… How ya gonna make a clean getaway from robbin’ the bank if ya don’t wash yer horse, first?!?
I do know that here in my home state, it’s illegal to eat peanuts in church on Sundays. I guess you can eat peanuts in church any other day, just not Sundays.
Yeah, I had one of those books, too, in my younger days. Always a fun read!
Cool! Not that I’m going to put a horse in a bath tub anytime soon, but I like learning stuff like that.
I’m wondering if people were eating peanuts in the shell and throwing the shells on the floor. Like they used to at certain steak houses. That would get me to make a law against it! Clumsy people like me would fall and bust their butts!
He was a famous but controversial baseball player for the Cincinnati Reds. We were at a home game and were watching them, and some kids above us were heckling him. I was a kid myself, but I wanted to climb up there the throw them over the edge.