Sometimes you just have to laugh at absurd ideas.

Whether it’s at the tiny Smart car rolling down the road or stories about requests for tombstone memorials to commemorate animals killed in automobile crashes, some things are just and ridiculous.

The Modesto Bee reports that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization wants a memorial along the highway in Turlock, Calif. to honor chickens that died in a big rig crash in early August.

The article points out that PETA wants similar roadside memorials in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Utah.

I’ve hit a few squirrels and other critters in my lifetime. Can we go back and erect monuments to creatures who failed to avoid the front end of vehicles?

The point of the memorial, according to a PETA spokeswoman quoted in the article, is to “remind people to drive safe and go vegan.”

That PETA sent the request to the wrong agency – they asked the local public works department to approve the proposed granite tombstone when they should be asking the state Department of Transportation as the incident happened on a state highway – is just icing on the misguided cake upon which PETA seems to be dining.

According to the article, PETA doesn’t know what the memorial will cost, probably because they don’t want to pay for it themselves.

I’m not making light of the crash that claimed the lives of the caged chickens that were apparently destined for a market in San Francisco’s Chinatown. It’s just an example of the über ridiculous among us. Perhaps if they were cage-free while riding on the truck this wouldn't have happened.

I’ve got it. Instead of a stone memorial along a freeway that nobody will see because they’re too busy texting and driving, perhaps a fast food chicken restaurant at that location might be a good reason to get people to stop and remember that the chickens paid the ultimate sacrifice to fill our bucket meals with extra-crispy pieces.