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I want to give a special shout-out to the Seattle Department of Transportation because they are clearly using our tax dollars wisely — they have just launched a brand-new campaign called SpokesSalmonSal.

SpokesSalmonSal is a salmon puppet who talks to people about how wondrous public transportation is. All of the people who meet her pretend like they’re surprised, because who has ever seen a salmon out of water — and a talking salmon at that?

She’s got all of these great lines:

“Seattle rush hour is like spawning season all year ’round.”

“Do my gills look good in this?”

“Have you ever seen the line to spawn? It’s a mess. It’s like I-5.”

“Do you know how much less pollution we’d have if everyone worked from home one day a week? How would I know? I’m a fish.”

“An hour [to get to work]? Try swimming 600 miles just to get a date.”

Dori: Sound Transit spent $250K of your money on steel octopus

And at one point, pushed to her limit by traffic, she lets off a bunch of swear words. They’re bleeped out, of course, but you can still tell that one of them begins with an F. It’s edgy; that will get the kids to watch. What a clever touch.

SpokesSalmonSal fills my heart with joy. This is why I pay taxes. This is why I love a portion of my take-home pay carved off to give to government. I’m glad that I can send some of my paycheck to the government so they can do really creative things like this.

You may recall, a few years ago the Washington State Department of Health launched a campaign to get us to wash our hands — WashYourHandsingTon.

“WashYourHandsingTonians are always friendly and germ-free; they love to give high-fivers, not high fevers.”  That was also a good expenditure, too. I scrubbed like a surgeon after that came out.

So here is my little online poll. What is a better expenditure of your hard-earned tax dollars — the sock puppet SpokesSalmonSal from the Seattle Department of Transportation or WashYourHandsingTon from the Washington State Department of Health? Visit the to cast your vote.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.