A Cone with Attitude

There seems to be something about cones which lends itself to misappropriation.
The most famous misappropriation is the placement of one on top of Wellington's statue outside the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, and whereas this has become an iconic image, the occasional placement on top of philosopher Hume's academic pow outside Edinburgh's High court is not allowed to linger. Obviously Wellington is fair game, but not the Scottish 'lad o' pairts' in his verdigris coloured toga, who suffers the extra indignity of having his toes irreversibly rubbed to a golden sheen.

This traffic cone which had wandered at the weekend from one of the ubiquitous road works in this fair city found itself on a stake of one of the newly planted trees in the Meadows outside the Dower House windows. It bothered His Lordship so much, that had I not stopped him, he would have thrown dignity to the wind in an attempt to dislodge it yesterday.

Fortunately someone did it for him today and plonked it on top of one of the railings instead. It will be interesting to see how long it lingers there before an enterprising student removes it to adorn his bedroom. I have lived through enough years of finding street furniture in teenagers' bedrooms to know how appealing such things are after a night of partying.