Is it illegal to build a snowman?

Can the city stop you from building a snowman?   I mean, has a snowman on your own property ever hurt anyone?  And if a particular one hasn’t, then it should be innocent until proven guilty, right?  Apparently not all city officials see things this way.

Billy Powers, of Anchorage, Alaska, builds a 25 foot tall snowman called Snowzilla every year.  The city ordered him not to build it last year, but he did anyway.  Supposedly this giant snowman is violating city land use codes.  City officials said Powers has ignored land use codes in Anchorage for 13 years and accumulated more than $100,000 in fines.

I’ll admit I don’t know the whole story, so maybe there’s more going on than what’s in the news release.   But based on the article, what’s the big deal? Are there land use codes in Alaska against building giant snowmen?  I sure hope not!  (Surely there’s no rules like that here in Arkansas, where we rarely get enough snow to do anything like that… but if we ever do get a ginormous snowfall, you’ll see some amazing snow creations!)

One of the commenters said Powers has junk in his yard, which would probably be the reason for the $100,000 in fines.  But why is the city manager complaining about a snowman?   If the guy is violating land use codes in other ways, then prosecute him for that.  Why in the world is he getting in trouble for building a giant snowman?

Of course, this isn’t the first time government has done something stupid.  But this is stretching it beyond normal stupidity…

building our own giant straw Christmas goat

In past years, we’ve discussed the giant straw Christmas goat built in Sweden every year.   I mean, what says Christmas like a 43-foot tall straw Christmas goat?  Well, I could probably think of a few things, but it’s tradition.  It’s also tradition for vandals to burn the goat down.

I could say a lot more, but it’s probably already been said in the first post, so I will link to that for your reading convenience: the Swedish Christmas goat.

I came across another article about it, and it’s rather funny.  Here’s that link: Goodness, Gracious Great (Swedish) Goats of Fire!  [link broken]

Here at Buffet o’ Blog, we are trying to start a tradition of building the next world-record-breaking giant straw Christmas goat, and then burning it down.   It would be one of the coolest things around (see the first link for details).   But so far, all we’ve done is start a tradition of Mango-Man saying it’s a great idea, but then he makes excuses (perhaps to protect his secret flower garden of ketunias), and it never happens.  Well, one of these years it will happen (with or without his consent — but if he gets a cut of the proceeds, he will realize what a great business opportunity it is).  The rest of the Buffet o’ Blog regulars have voted for this, so we’ve reached a consensus — a quorum, even — that this needs to happen.  When it does happen, it will be posted here first, so stay tuned.

caption contest, man with pants down in public

New posts were in short supply last week with the extended holiday — there were a lot of Thanksgiving dinners to attend — but now things are back to normal.  So let’s kick this week off with a caption contest, as is our custom.

This week’s photo is quite unusual.  I really have no idea what’s going on here, except that a guy is standing in the middle of the road with his pants down and his shirt off.   There are a lot of other people around, but at a distance.  Since I have no context whatsoever for this picture, we’ll just have to make it up.  That’s where you come in.  Explain what could be going on here, whether realistically or not.  Just make it funny, and keep it clean.

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

combining Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas

This year, it seems people got into decorating for Halloween a lot more than normal.  And as you’ve probably noticed, retail department stores are pushing the Christmas decor on us before Thanksgiving.  It’s getting crazy.  I like to keep the holidays separate — my rule is no Christmas music or Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.  But stores seem to not be informed of my rule.

Before long, these holidays will all become merged by the unstoppable commercialization process.  Figuring out how to market the holidays together might seem difficult, but fortunately someone has already figured all this out.  In the article I’m about to link to, Chris Carlisle combines Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  For a mascot / symbol, he creates a “ninja robot Mecha Santa Claus”.  If that’s not enough to get you to read the article, I don’t know what is…   Plus it’s funny, and he has a good way of explaining all this.

Holiday Ninja Action Force Unite!  [link broken]