Whinging and Whining

I've done my share of bitching about the fact that people do not clean up after their dogs here. It has now been put into perspective by this story:

Inflatable dog turd sculpture escapes Swiss museum, wreaks havoc
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:54 AM ET
CBC News

A powerful gust of wind recently swept a house-sized sculpture of dog feces from its display outside a Swiss museum, an art official in Berne said Monday.

The incident took place on the night of July 31, but details of the artwork's escape — and the havoc it caused before its eventual landing — emerged just this week.

The massive inflatable sculpture, created by U.S. contemporary artist Paul McCarthy and titled Complex Shit, is part of the Paul Klee Centre's exhibit East of Eden: A Garden Show. McCarthy's piece was displayed outdoors, among "weird and wonderful objects [forming] an animated kind of front garden," according to the museum website.

The sculpture is usually contained by a safety system that deflates it during instances of bad weather. However, the system failed on this occasion and the work escaped from the Klee Centre's garden, museum director Juri Steiner told Agence France-Presse.

The wind carried the work away, knocking down a power line and breaking a window at a nearby orphanage before falling to the ground about 200 metres from the centre.

The museum had yet to contact McCarthy about the incident, Steiner said. Officials are also contemplating whether to return the piece to display.

And I've always thought of the Swiss as such a tidy people.

12 agosto - San Erocolano

A Little Noledge is a Dangrus Thing

Being a Canadian part of my national inferiority complex is to feel superior to our American cousins - and lets never forget we are cousins - when it comes to our system of education.

But my dear old Mom was right: the more puffed up you get the more air there is to knock out of you. After reading this little news item I am feeling somewhat less superior. My colleague Pauline blushingly admitted to being a graduate of Fredericton High School when it was a large institute - 1000 in her graduating class. But she assures me she does no how to speel.

I do feel bad for the staff of the yearbook. Though I'm sure computers make it easier, I recall what hard work it was putting one together.