Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Kentucky to Mandate Minimum Teeth Count for Ride Operators

A little-noted provision in Kentucky's recent legislation to set a minimum age for ride operators is expected to wreak havoc on amusement facilities in the state: henceforth, every ride operator will be required to possess no fewer than ten of his or her original teeth.

"This is devastating," said Hank Cash, spokesman for Kentucky's amusement industry group and proud owner of nine original teeth. "It takes a lot of people to staff an amusement park, and fully three-fourths of our residents have fewer than ten teeth. I mean, it could be worse -- they could require basic literacy, which would just destroy us overnight -- but it's pretty awful."

State senator Joe Muller, also known as "Toothy McTeeth" to his friends, disagreed. "This is long overdue. We need ride operators with teeth."

--GP