Littering: a pet peeve. More than a "peeve." Put simply, littering pisses me off. (Sorry for that language, but it really gets under my skin.) As the good folks in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania warn, littering is illegal. (Not that you would know that judging from the sign in Brooklyn that pleads that you "don't litter PLEASE"!).

Yes, it's illegal. Ho hum. But it's the punishment that's the rub. What's the consequence for tossing out the car window that bag of McDonald's trash or that ashtray full of cigarette butts?

Well, it depends on where you are. In Granby, Connecticut, you're on the hook for $10. Ooh! Why not celebrate a big night out on the town and toss several bags of trash? At that price, most everyone can afford it. Thankfully, a $500 fine is more common (Bucks Pocket State Park, Alabama; Millersburg, Ohio; Halifax, Vermont; Angola, New York). A few places, like Felton, Georgia, up the ante to a thousand bucks. And in Holyoke, Massachusetts, they'll hit you for a cool ten grand. THAT's more like it. But the winner is Rosebud, Missouri. They don't take kindly to cleaning up your crap in Rosebud. It's the only place I've seen which threatens to incarcerate you for your annoying and harmful behavior. Three cheers to Rosebud!

On the flip side, three Bronx cheers to Mineral Wells, Texas, which encourages its motorists to refrain from littering to "save taxes". Based on the piles of discarded and decomposing rubbish at the foot of the sign, that approach doesn't seem to be working. (I'm not making this up -- have a look.)

And while I'm railing, I should also draw your attention to the "Please Don't Litter" sign in Trinity, Alabama, which concludes with the words, "Keep Alabama the Beautiful." Huh? Keep Alabama the Beautiful State It Once Was Before The Plague Of Pop Tops, Styrofoam Cups, and Used Antifreeze? "Keep Alabama Grammatical" might have been a better choice.

Finally: tossing a cigarette butt is littering. Nicotine is extraordinarily toxic; that cigarette butt will kill everything in a two-square inch for four years.