Do You Have Any Idea How Large Stoplights Are?

There are some who experience the world with a greater depth of understanding than others. People who know the names of trees, for example, or how leaves grow. Birders. My coworker, Gawker Art Director Jack Koloskus, seems to be one of these people from the little I know of him. Once he told my coworkers and I that mosquitoes exist because of tires, which was shocking. (You can ask him why.) Another time I told him there were numerous large bees near me and he, I believe correctly, identified them as not bees but moths. Another time, he told us stoplights are actually much larger than you think they are.

And it’s true. Most of them are over four feet tall. Some are even larger than that. They just don’t look that way because they’re up there hanging. But look at this:

Isn’t that something? Now when you pass by a stoplight you can say to someone: “You know, I learned a peculiar thing about stoplights recently. They’re actually big.” And that person will, from that moment on, think of you as someone who knows more about their surroundings than the average person. And won’t that be nice?

Thank you, Jack.

[Artistic rendering of Jack with a stoplight.]