There's no place like home

Another gem brought to you via a local news crime blotter:

Benton County Sheriff's Office
Monday, June 14
LLAMA HEAD: 9:18 p.m., 25300 block Cherry Creek Road. A woman discovered a dead llama's head nailed to her neighbor's fence. The neighbor's wife apologized for her husband's behavior and removed the head.


There are moments when hometown pride gets taken to a whole new level. Despite a fair amount of traveling that finds me now in the land of Haibao, as opposed to the lush, green Willamette Valley, this hometown news story makes one-half of llamasutra practically weep with pride. The other half wishes she could come to know this magical hamlet, where llama heads are often misconstrued as inappropriate, when clearly it was a sign of neighborly love.

(For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of seeing Haibao up close and personal in Shanghai, here's a photo of the elusive blue man-thing, compared to Gumby for good measure.)