Ok, Internet Hunters. ASSEMBLE!

[captainsblog]

So after yesterday's newspaper bizarreness, I awake today to read this. The AP version first, since it omits some of the duller local details:




Baby Jesus Statue Takes a Trip

 
(Buffalo, N.Y.) AP - A Buffalo family has a pretty weird story to tell at Christmas parties this year.

It seems the plastic baby Jesus from John and Joan Leising's lighted manger scene was stolen last year, and a note left in its place saying it would be returned in three days. As it turned out, it was gone eight months.
 
Then one morning in August, John opened the front door and found the plastic statue lying there along with a photo album.

There also was a note explaining that the statue had traveled far and wide, and the album was full of snapshots chronicling the trip.

Someone had posed the statue in front of Thruway signs in Binghamton, Rochester, Albany, and Poughkeepsie.  It was posed on a bicycle, on a horse, in a car wearing a seat belt, in a chair next to a campfire, and in someone's kitchen next to the makings of chocolate brownies.

The note said the prank was never meant to be "blasphemous or disrespectful." It was signed "Creators of the baby Jesus chronicles."

John Leising said the real Jesus would have forgiven the pranksters and he does too.

You can read the Buffalo Snooze original here, which includes this picture of the returned prodigal Son-



- but also includes more of a quote from the note, which I found rather sweet:

"Please read this letter in its entirety before passing judgment on the actions and events that have taken place," the letter began. "We are simply a group of young adults who wished to show the baby Jesus a better life than he would have seen cooped up in an attic crawl space. He has traveled over counties and states, met people and animals alike. We have done our best to show the baby Jesus the many glorious aspects of our world."

Now I understand some of the motivations here. In my wilder days of Ute, it was not unheard of for roving gangs of smartasses to roam the streets of Nausea County, stealing premature baby Jesuses from nativity scenes since they obviously had been placed there by mistake before Christmas Eve night. A few years ago, a bag of baby Jesuses got confiscated in this area on Grand Island, and police were puzzled. I wanted to call 911 and explain, "Put it back where you found it! They'll all be back in time for Christmas!"

I also understand the concept of the roaming gnome, from Amelie rather than those hideous Travelocity commercials.  In the Court of Ray, these vandals would be acquitted without need of trial- getting only a mild tongue-lashing for not having revealed their intentions in the first place.

----

But there would also be a community service sentence imposed. I WANT THE PICTURES, DAMMIT.

"Baby Jesus Chronicles" sounds like it was intended as an Internet thing all along. As of this moment, though, that phrase googles up only two things: references to the news articles, pictureless except for the above, and one MySpace page, insufferable to look at since all its wallpaper was hotlinked from imageshack.us and disabled via blinding yellow warning frames. The phrase "Baby Jesus Chronicles" appears, but I can't see anything else to it there.

First to find and link to the actual pictures online gets a ticket to this weekend's Detroit Lions home finale. All runners-up get two tickets.

Comments

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

That's really astonishing. What a novel spin on an old prank.

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

But who would WANT tix to a Lions game?