Snowzilla Returns: A Christmas Miracle
By scarce Friday Dec 26, 2008 10:30amFrom the Anchorage Daily News:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Someone has told the city of Anchorage what it can do with its cease-and-desist order to prevent Snowzilla - the giant snowman - from rising up again this winter in an east Anchorage neighborhood.
Snowzilla - thought to be no more - is yet again. Someone again built the giant snowman in Billy Powers' front yard. Snowzilla reappeared overnight.
...
For several years, Snowzilla has risen in the front yard of Powers' modest home. His children - he has five still at home - collected snow from neighbors' yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla got a bit bigger.Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.
City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice on Powers' door.
City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.
Seven angry snowmen protested yesterday outside Anchorage City Hall, wielding signs that read "Snowpeople Have Rights!" and "Save Us Obama".
From Snowzilla.org
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We don't have to worry until the Japanese have trouble timing their words with the movements of their mouths.
If the snowman is Christian, he stays.
If he's liberal, he's gone.
Maybe they can hire Mike Wooten to direct the traffic?
a casualty.
First came the War On Drugs. Then came the War On Terror. Then came the War On Christmas. And now we have the War On Frosty. Methinks this nation has lost its ability to prioritize.
isn't that enough to frost yer balls. You betcha!
"Snowzilla", I thought that was Sarah Palin's pet name.
How long would it take to disassemble The Zillster and put the head at the bottom and the paunch on the top?
That must be a fun neighbourhood he lives in. "Get off my lawn," Alaska-style?
"...to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe."
I guess it's "for the children?" Bubble-wrap them and keep them on a shelf until they're 18?
How many of those children will be educated about the "binding contract" world they'll be entering which separates them from homes and prison cells?
This is a bit long, but it's Christmas, and it's great!!!!! See my "for the children" comment, above:
People over 35 should be dead. Here's why....
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags. Riding in the back of a truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soft drink with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights went on. No one was able to reach us all day.
NO CELL PHONES!!!!!
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on sky, videotape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends!
We went outside and found them.
We played bullrush, and sometimes, we got really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Rugby and Netball had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed an exam and were held back to repeat the same class.
Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
And you're one of them!
Congratulations!
People under 30 are WIMPS!
your people are just stupid...
My sister and other friends are well over 30's and never did most of the stuff you're describing.We had seatbelts in the 60's. We had health protection acts in our country(especialy those air-tight seals on drinks).We got into fights without guns.We didnt discriminate black people...
Sounds arrogant i know...but your statement is too.
Merry Christmas friend.
p.s.: Why is everything weird a MIRACLE? When someone is saved by pure chance,its a miracle - nope, the firemen/police officers/medics take no credit for it. And when a strange dude claims that a FROSTIE is appearing every year on his lawn,not taking into consideration his delusional state, its considered also a miracle. Don't you just hate this? No? Well,it sucks to be me then.Cheers
"Delusional state?" You don't really think this guy really believes this is a miracle, do you?
The story specifically says that in previous years Powers and his children built the snowman.
But now, the city has a restraining order against him. So there's the snowman and he just smiles and says "Gee, it's a miracle! (Nothin' to do with me!)"
Hmmm, what country is that? Because Edwin, who posted that, is from Canada.
Me, I'm in the States, I'm 43 years old, and other than the bit about rugby and netball, those experiences are all mine as well(and only because no one around here played rugby and/or netball). And I'm still alive!
The igloos we built after big snowstorms didn't collapse on me and my friends. We rode our bikes down steep grades w/out helmets on our heads or hands on the handlebars. During the summer I'd leave for the park at 9am, come home for lunch around noon, go to the park- or whereever- until dinner, then back to the park for Capture The Flag until the sun went down.
And our crowd was racially mixed, and sure, we fought with each other from time to time, because that's part of learning to interact and socialize with other human beings, and it's been happening since we came down out of the trees. But we didn't tolerate bullies or racism- like I wrote, in my corner of the USA.
My friend sent it to me from Australia. Same rules in Canada (and, looks like, the USA.) I did fall out of a tree and broke my shoulder blade. No one cared, not even me. It was part of being a kid. I can't tell you how many times I wiped out on my bike (no helmet) and gouged my knees, but tons!! Blood everywhere. I licked it off, and got back on my bike. My grandfather gave me firecrackers and cigarettes to play with. It was great- Kaboom.
I always found that spitting on a bloody knee, then rubbing some dirt on the wound, was the best medicine.
Tough to do, though, when you're playing softball and tear up one of your butt cheeks sliding into home- so you spit on the dirt first, then rub it in.
and stayed up too late. Also hardly ever rode my bike using the handles.
Did you read all the stuff in my post? (It's a chain e-mail.) Well, I did all of it, just as it reads. No-brakes go-kart, drinking from the hose, no seatbelt, played outside, rode my bike everywhere, was never fat, had friends, played tag. Be home when the streetlights come on was universal. My parents never knew where I was. We didn't think about such things: outside having fun-- the end. I was never driven to school-- never!! I never would have even imagined such a thing. The baby (my brother) was put in a wicker basket on the front seat, between mom and dad. Do kids this stuff now? I hardly think so.
My nephew has to wear safety helmet to ride a tricycle in his driveway.
I'll wear mine on those rare occasions when I bike, but only because the streets in my neighborhood are awfully busy.
But I live about a mile or two from the neighborhood in which I grew up, Edwin, and I wouldn't think twice if my kid rode helmetless through my old stomping grounds. There's no more traffic there than there was in the '70's.
I'm a little disappointed that the chain letter didn't mention tennis ball cannons. THOSE were fun.
and had fun doing it!
Ah, the childhood memories of my older brother showing me how to shinny up a pole (a proud moment for me), us goofing around on stilts at my grandmother's house, and the day I almost drowned when I fell through the ice in the creek.
Good times!
After I learned to shinny up the pole, I decided it would be fun to slide down, head first. Yup, cracked my head open on the concrete; back to the hospital again. Good times is right!
to Edwin Knievel, Gay Stuntman.
;^D
and some scrapes on the hands and knees is good fer ya. It toughens a person up for the road ahead and builds character!
That's one I wouldn't have done. Knew a bit better, I guess.
But I used to climb to the tops of the trees in the neighborhood, no problem. These days my sense of vertigo would kick in after ascending about ten feet (that's three metres for you Canadians, eh?).
Me, I've always had a hankering for a certain amount of danger. Call me crazy!
drove, I walked a mile and a half to school, because they would not drop me a block or two away...it was up through the circle drive, or nothing.
Gasp, the indignities we suffered!
Memories.
I'll drink to that!
Da Man. Well said Edwin. I agree 110%.
I think this is a legal version of a hecklers' veto. It has nothing to do with the snowman being "unsafe" or "a public nuisance." It has to do with city officials not wanting to be hassled with complaints and figuring the easier, more convenient, course is to shut Powers down.
A non-religious amusement put up by people on their own private property gets the hackles up on the religious reich.
And yet, ex-judge Roy Moore the Moore-on puts up a symbol of idolatry in a courthouse (the engraved "ten condiments" or whatever it's called) and the reichwing are all for it.
Clearly, there is no "war on christmas", but there is definitely a war on anything not christmas. I'm not comparing this to nazi Germany, but the deliberate misrepresentation of who and what is being attacked is definitely reminiscent of the rationalized hypocrisy around the reichstag.
It is illegal.
Hear hear.
'Jarts'
he should put the city council to the test and build an equally large Snow Jesus. That would put the silly buggers on the spot.
I totally agree! LMAO!
I walked to and from school, in the snow, with boxes for shoes, uphill both ways.
/actually did bust my head open three times between the ages of 6 and 9. Twice on the same spot. Since I've lost my hair (damn male-pattern baldness) the scars are easily seen.
Luxury!
Frostbite took my toes and feet early so i was reduced to crawling until i lost my elbows.
Pushin' 60 and remember (ok Edwin and Andy K jogged my memory) all of those things. A couple mroe: playing jousting knights on bikes with tent poles and garbage can shields. Grabbing on to the back of cars or buses in winter for a ride.
He's soon to be a victim of GLOBAL WARMING...or as Palin would say "God turning up the thermostat."
I remember always climbing in trees that I was told were dangerous, and reaching for branches people said would break.
I was wandering when I found this post. What a kick! I'm an Alaskan and we have all quite enjoyed the story. Well, not the part about the City saying "The World's Largest Snowman" (or at least someone claimed; maybe we should talk to Guinness :-) had to go, but the part about how it "mysteriously" reappeared and the public reaction to it. Although we have our fair share of dunderheads (who seem to largely self-select for government jobs :-), in general, Alaskans are sort of natural libertarians in the "we really would rather you'd just stick with maintaining the streets" type mentality towards government.
So I'm delighted that this is getting national play. Makes the "City officials" look like ... um ... (what are the site rules; I don't want to get edited or "flagged as inappropriate")... hmm ...ok: "the potholes that exist because the City was too busy worrying about Snowgiants to bother fixing the streets and into which those creatures that Jesus rode keep falling"!
Now, with the term properly defined can I say that "it makes the 'City officials' look like a bunch of assholes"? ;-)
Other than possibly the humorless neighbors, Alaskans are pretty united on this one. Billy Powers goes to a lot of trouble to build that each year. It is perfectly appropriate and fits the season wonderfully. If they ban that, what next? Houses that put up too many outdoor Christmas lights or [heaven(;-)forbid)] a Nativity scene in their yard? Government has to be stopped at the top of the "slippery slope" because once they get up momentum, it is lots more difficult!
Anyway, great to find an Alaska post that had nothing to do with our Governor or (ex)Senator!
I keep a running commentary on events up here ... I've been engrossed in getting together a really good series on the Wreck of the Exxon Valdez since, finally, after nearly 20 years (!!!), the fishermen whose livelihoods were destroyed are getting checks. Unfortunately, the checks are a *tiny* fraction of what the jury awarded. Exxon fought this tooth and nail and destroyed so many lives! And then they finally got a Supreme Court that would back Big Oil over the little guy victim even if it meant throwing out hundreds of years of law to do it.
Sorry ... that was off topic ... just in my head a lot at the moment. I'm continuing to work on the entire series [5 parts so far with a finale in process, but lots still to do to perfect the earlier postings]. Even so, it is in really good shape and you will learn more about the 1989 spill and the 20 years of aftermath than you had any idea. It should scare the pants off of anyone who is concerned that the corpocracy is taking over ... or already has.
Drop on by. I'll put the coffee on.
http://alaskanwoulds.blogspot.com/
Backwoods
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