Crazed ragpicker poses as city employee, makes terroristic threats to laughing-out-loud store owner.

Longtime readers of this blog know that for many years, I've expressed an aversion to political yard signs.

But having thought better of it during the course of campaigning for mayor, and secure in the knowledge that we're offering platforms over platitudes, the whole process of sign placement has proven to be fun and entertaining, just so long as the tail isn't wagging the dog.

This morning, the sheer entertainment potential of political yard signs was revealed to its greatest conceivable extent.

We'd delivered two signs on Saturday to Cisa Barry at Sew Fitting, and she decided to put one in the tree well in front of her business.

I'm told it's the same tree well the city refused to clear of weeds or bother improving, so Cisa and a friend pulled the weeds, and the building owners added barrier cloth and rock.

My campaign treasurer is Marcey Wisman-Bennett, who works at Sew Fitting, and Marcey quizzed Cisa in precisely the same way I've done when asked for a sign by a business owner: Are you sure? It may repel some customers, and also attract the attention of a particularly vindictive species of City Hall denizen. Cisa was firm (as have a handful of other fellow independent business owners, whom I thank).

As to whether it is legal to put a sign in that tree well, I'd concede that strictly speaking, it's probably no more legal than the two tacky signs tacked to the utility pole in front of the VapeWorks, adjacent to Sew Fitting -- which the city has done nothing about.

Further, I submit that if a business owner finds herself in the position of doing the city's tree well maintenance work for it -- especially after the Board of Public Works has been overtly unhelpful in previous requests made of it with regard to the safety of the intersection, something almost surely owing to political motivations (see "vindictive" above) -- she may care less about strict interpretations, especially when a scene like this is permitted two blocks from her business.

This morning, before Marcey arrived at work, Cisa had a visitor. He said he was a city employee, but did not otherwise identify himself, and she didn't know his name. The city "employee" was red-faced and yelling.

"Marcey should know better than to put a political sign on city property ... if Roger is going to complain about the job I'm doing he shouldn't have signs on city property."

In the hope that he might go away, Cisa removed the sign, but let the city "employee" know that she was the business owner, and she was the one who made the decision to put the sign out -- not Marcey, and not Roger.

After that he was a tad deflated, but managed to huff and puff an additional flatulent utterance: "Marcey still should know better," before stomping away.

Now here's the funny part.

When Marcey came into work and heard the story, she thought about it, and arranged a "lineup" of social media faces in the hope of coaxing a positive ID from Cisa.

And this is how we know who it was.

Dan Coffey.

Thus informed, Cisa did the only logical thing.

She put the sign back out.