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An old joke runs as follows: This jape exemplifies a bit of twisted logic worthy of Gracie Allen: if your problem doesn't fit the location, then make the location fit the problem. That's the reasoning behind the letter to the editor reproduced above, one which advocates that a Deer Crossing warning sign should be moved to an area with less traffic because too many of the animals are being struck by automobiles at its current location. (The humor, of course, is that such a sign merely alerts motorists that deer are present in the area — it doesn't lure deer to the area or encourage them to cross the roadway there, so moving the sign elsewhere would do nothing to ameliorate the stated problem.) This letter was indeed submitted by Crown Point, Indiana, resident Tim Abbott and published by the Munster, Indiana, Times on 19 August 2011, and the missive garnered a good deal of public attention after it was read on the air by Tonight Show host Jay Leno in September 2011 and again when it was posted on the Facebook page of Star Trek actor George Takei in June 2012. In a June 2012 follow-up article about the letter, its author declined to explictly confirm whether he had meant it to be taken seriously or humorously, but the tenor of his response clearly indicated the latter: On 17 September 2012, a woman later dubbed Donna the Deer Lady called the weekly vent line feature of Fargo radio station Y94's Morning Playhouse show and stated that she had been in three car accidents involving deer in the last few years, all of which had occurred near deer-crossing signs; she then offered seemingly earnest complaints about officials' allowing these deer crossings to be in such high-traffic areas and questioned why we are encouraging deer to cross the interstate. The following month, a recording of that call received wide circulation on the Internet via YouTube. However, others such as Tampa radio talk show host Todd Schnitt maintain that Donna was actually a fake caller who has been used by Y94's hosts more than once to stage supposedly real, outrageous phone conversations. According to Schnitt, she appeared on the station again in October 2013 claiming that she was going to hand out fat letters on Halloween to trick-or-treaters she did not deem thin enough to deserve candy.
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