Help Wanted

You would think, that in a slow economy, entrepreneurs would be extremely cautious about opening up new businesses.  In Tampa, businesses are closing left and right and left again.  Entire strip malls are sitting empty.  Salons close in the middle of the night, leaving their poor highlighted customers high and dry.  And probably even more telling -- the Disney Store closed.

The Disney Store.

A few months ago, a bar down the street, The Airplane Hangar, shut its doors -- though in the last 6 years, I've never seen more than 3 cars in the parking lot at any one time.  Within a week, it seemed, a new set of bars took its place -- Glo and Crazy Horse.  Can you guess what kind of bars they are? 

Let me give you a hint:  

Yep -- we've got ourselves a couple of nudie bars now down the street. 

How convenient.

The rearing stallion was installed about three weeks after the bars opened -- probably because the same three cars that frequented The Airplane Hangar were still the same cars frequenting the new establishments.  I assume the new owners wanted to catch the busy travelers' eyes on Hillsborough Avenue. I can testify that the stallion is eye-catching -- I  nearly wrecked the first time I saw it.  

At first it was just the horse.

Same three cars.

Then red lights were installed in place of the stallion's original eyes.

Same three cars.

Then a paint roller cover made the stallion anatomically correct.

I screamed bloody murder in my car and scared my children.

The paint roller cover was removed.

Then the horse was draped with white twinkle lights.

Same three cars.

Then the owners apparently figured out that the people driving the three cars weren't inviting all their friends to join them because the real draw to the new bars was lacking in some way.

So now they are hiring.  The sign has been up for two weeks and it does not appear that all (any?) of the positions have been filled.

I guess the economy isn't so bad after all.