Useful connection 13/3/2012
The 21st Century’s version of hiring a lamplight carrier:
It’s called Homeless Hotspots and it involves turning homeless men on the streets of Austin into WiFi Internet hotspots; the men take donations from the public who can then access their hotspot.
As expected, there’s opposition from the so-called compassionate, caring class.
Time.com quotes SXSW attendee Anniina Jokinen as saying, “Anyone else find using homeless persons as ‘Homeless Hotspots’ at SXSWi disturbing, dehumanizing, offensive?”
Gawd, what would such a luvvie make of the dunny carters of my youth. Our nightman was said to have the fastest truck in town: It had 40 cylinders and flies.
Seems to me that the man who operated the nightcart was a symbol of civilisation. If there was no nightcart, imagine how foul the town would become. The nightman in our town was usually given a clear path – partly out of respect, and partly to avoid fumes and vapours.
But I cannot see Anniina Jokinen as a nightman
My computer tells me that ‘nightcart’ is a mis-spelling – but perhaps few people know about nightmen and nightsoil.
40 Piss-tins and flies perhaps Slats?