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1948 Mayor To MIT: Use Flamethrowers To Melt Snow?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yes-have-some-please dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In 1948 Boston mayor James Curley freaked out because of the record amounts of snow. He wrote to MIT and begged for help, even suggested using flamethrowers to melt it. (Check out the original type-written letter.)"

3 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Overkill, but... by Asic+Eng · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Tell you what, I'll tell them to go ahead---- And send the bill to you.

    Cute - you want a public service, but payment should be provided only by those who admit that it's necessary. Just pretending you don't need it - but happily benefiting from it - means you get to leach of other people who are more honest. Is that the idea?

  2. Possibly off topic, but I have to say it by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Something about letters from that era that are just so simply elegant. I love reading letters from that time.

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    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  3. It's been done before by Raul654 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The night before John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, a snowstorm dumped 8 inches of snow on Washington DC. The Army Corps of Engineers worked franticly, using flamethrowers to clear the streets. Click here for the full story.

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    To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
    --E.C. Stanton