"The Boston Monument" On April 1, 1997, New England was hit with an enormous blizzard. This blizzard, immediately dubbed the April Fools' Day Blizzard, dumped huge amounts of snow over a wide area. The largest metropolitan area affected was Boston, which did its best to cope with record-breaking snowfall. For a city the size of Boston, extremely deep snow causes many problems; not the least of which is the infamous Fire Hydrant Problem. How can Boston's fire fighters locate fire hydrants that are buried in snow? (And what about short dogs? Some will only "go" at a particular fire hydrant. They accept no substitutes.) Fortunately, Boston's city fathers had advance warning of the storm (this time!) so they devised a plan to deal with the Fire Hydrant Problem. They issued a special plea to Boston's Great Danes. "We are requesting that all able-bodied Great Danes locate a nearby fire hydrant. Please seat yourselves next to your hydrant and remain there until this crisis is over." The Great Danes of Boston did not need to be told why the request was made. They knew that as the snow piled up, the municipal fire hydrants would be buried. They felt it was their duty to place themselves next to the hydrants to act as markers. It was lousy work, but it had to be done, and only Boston Great Danes have the height and good sense required to accomplish this arduous task. So Boston's Great Danes answered the call and kept a cold and lonely vigil next to the fire hydrants. Because of their selfless sacrifice, I propose that the city of Boston construct a monument. It should be placed in a city park as a memorial to the April Fools' Day Blizzard Fire Hydrant Rescue. We'll just call it "The Boston Monument" for short.

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