A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below

[austin_dern]

We've finally been getting the roof replaced. While a whole flock of guys circled the house and started tending things --- mostly ripping off the ancient shingles --- we worried it might damage the concrete statue of a rabbit that sits in the plants in front of the house. Its ears were accidentally broken by the painters last year and expertly reattached by bunny_hugger's father.

It turned out we didn't have particular need to worry about its ears. At some point the whole statue was stolen. Whether by kids pulling a prank, or someone who so loved the bunny statue he had to steal it from the actual owners, or by someone so desperate for cash as to hawk a used garden statue we can't guess. It's devastating anyway and it's ruined the delight of having the roof --- which was on the verge of falling off --- in the best shape it's been in in decades.

The bartender at the hipster bar where we play pinball --- Facebook-friends with bunny_hugger because that's just the way the world is now --- spread the word about the stolen statue, ordering whichever drunk it was took it to return it (no-questions-asked if it's returned to her), which at least adds some humor to the affair.

---

Also I'm sorry to interrupt the amusement park tour reporting but realized I'd gotten a big pile of mathematics posts that I hadn't bundled into an announcement recently, so let me get those together:

• 16,000 and a Square, marking another little milestone in my blogging popularity, such as it is.
• Reading the Comics, June 22, 2014: Name-Dropping Stuff Edition, one of a surprisingly large number of comic strip posts in a row.
• In A Really Big Universe, where I get to thinking about a universe infinite in size and age and come away moping.
• Reading the Comics, June 27, 2014: Pretty Easy Edition, since cartoonists did a lot of my work for me.
• June 2014 In Mathematics Blogging, the monthly statistical survey of these things.
• Reading the Comics, July 3, 2014: Wulff and Morgenthaler Edition, and see what I mean?
• In A Really Old Universe, in which I ditch the infinite size and concentrate on infinite age.
• To Build A Universe, with a very simple toy model of what the elements making up a really old universe might be.
• What's Going On In The Old Universe, showing that something odd which happened in the toy model seems to be not the result of my happening to pick numbers that made it work.
• Reading the Comics, July 18, 2014: Summer Doldrums Edition, because it'd been weeks since the last comic strip roundup.
• Next In A Continuing Series, mentioning my discovery of a neat little reference.

Trivia: Schenectady-based WRGB television mailed out weekly schedules to television owners after broadcasting began on 6 November 1939. Of the roughly three hundred owners in the area, 25 to 40 regularly returned ratings. Source: Wondrous Contrivances: Technology at the Threshold, Merritt Ierley.

Currently Reading: Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter, Richard Barrios.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I really think we can rule out "prank." A prank would be putting a silly outfit on it, or moving it somewhere wacky but conspicuous, or something else that was at least quasi-humorous.

If you mean kids taking it just to upset someone, well, that's not a prank, that's simply being mean.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, at least attempted prank. I could imagine, say, the intent being to send us pictures of the rabbit from around the city, but then the statue breaking and the thieves abandoning the whole project. But there's then meanness in not fessing up to it and trying to make amends. It's rotten anyway, even in the most charitable interpretation of what happened (which I think would be little kids who took the statue to play with it and lost it or forgot where to return it to).

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't see much being likely besides "lawn statues are surprisingly expensive, so someone took it."

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Aw! Damn, that's not nice. Sounded like a rather charming statue, too.. do you have any photos?

It couldn't hurt to speak with the neighbors, on the off-chance somebody saw something, or has seen a bunny appear somewhere else recently.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It was a sweet statue. I was embarrassed to find that I don't seem to have any good photographs of it; all the ones I can find seem to be ones of the full front of the house, so the statue is present but not visible in great detail.

You're right the neighbors might, although there's been a sad turnover in the neighborhood the last couple months; people who saw something might have left already.