Rooftop Protest Against the FAA

Fed up with jet noise and government bureaucracy, homeowners Michael Hall and Michaelene Buddy decided to take their protest straight to the top - of their roof, that is:

Mark Twain once said: "When angry, count to four, when very angry swear." Michael Hall said he tried the counting. He even counted past four to 20 - the number of times he said he called the Federal Aviation Administration's noise-complaint hotline. But each call, he said, was met with the same response - an automated message telling him the complaint mailbox was full and could no longer accept new calls.

Since the FAA's new departure headings out of Philadelphia International Airport went into effect last month as part of a massive restructuring of the airspace over the congested corridor from New York through Philadelphia, Hall said the noise level at his home on Fairmount Avenue near Ladomus Circle has been unbearable.

"I'm p----- off," he said. "I have to sleep with earplugs at night in my own house."

Hall, who has owned his home for 10 years, and his live-in girlfriend, Michaelene Buddy, brainstormed ways to get their complaints heard.

They finally resorted to the one true expression of anger and frustration - profanity.

Two weeks ago, on the black flat-topped roof of their one-story ranch home, it took the pair about an hour and about a gallon of the roof sealant to paint the incendiary three-word sentence, along with "No Fly Zone" and a symbol for "no planes."

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080124_Fed_up_with_jet_noise__couple_raise_the_roof.html (Photo: Fox 29, and yes, it was cleaned up) - Thanks Mr. Lonka!