Interesting Blue Book Laws in Massachusetts

The Blue Laws are laws that have been on the books since Puritan times. Some of them are very silly and the only reason that they are not repealed is that the level of effort that they have to go through to take them off the books is great and instead they have just chosen not to enforce them. Some of these laws are:

It is illegal to...

Frighten a pigeon from someone else's property

This law may have had a purpose back in Puritan times, but even then it seems like it would be hard to enforce. People love to shoo away pigeons and it would fill the jails if everyone who did it from someone else's property was arrested.

Pay to attend or participate in an unlicensed Sunday sporting event

If a Sunday sporting event is not licensed by the state that it is illegal. This means that any Sunday afternoon football games in the park are off-limits.

Wear bone lace, gold or silver buttons, or silk scarves or hoods worth more than "200 pounds"

This would put a lot of wealthy people in jeopardy of being arrested. 200 pounds is only roughly 400 dollars, and most of the rich and famous wouldn't be caught dead wearing anything worth less than 400 dollars. Thos Burberry scarves would definitely suffer.

Give Beer to Hospital Patients

This isn't really a bad law, the question really stems from who would WANT to give beer to a hospital patient. It just doesn't seem like a good idea. I wonder why they had to put this law on the books in the first place.

Idleness

Just napping on a lazy afternoon or sleeping in late on the weekends is grounds for arrest in Massachusetts. Glad this one isn't enforced or I would have gone away a long time ago.

Kiss in Public

I don't think a lot of people would argue against this law. I don't know many people who like PDAs, or public displays of affection. The reality is that there would be a lot of people in jail if this one were enforced, too.

Yell profanities at a participant or official of a sporting event -- unless you're under 16-years-old

That means a lot of people would have to keep their mouths shut at the big game. This might not be such a bad thing, but with the beer flowing at the ballpark we may have a large problem on our hands.

The laws can be found in the General Laws of Massachusetts which can be found online. They can also be found on DumbLaws.com.