Say it ain't so!

[Guest]

Poor El Tejon..he may never experience the redneck satisfaction that comes from gaudily colored blow molded birds on his lawn. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061029/ap_on_bi_ge/flamingo_s_swan_song

LEOMINSTER, Mass. - The day Mayor Dean Mazzarella turned 40, he got a surprise. "After I woke up and went out for my morning run, I came back and there were 40 pink flamingos in my front lawn," Mazzarella recalled. "Someone had put them there as a joke."
 
Now that he's 49  "the same age as the pink flamingo," he notes  he hopes both he and the iconic lawn ornament that his city claims as its own will still be around next year to celebrate 50.

But the original version of the plastic flamingo may be singing its swan song after inspiring countless pranks  and being alternately celebrated as a tribute to one of nature's most graceful creatures and derided as the epitome of American pop culture kitsch.

Union Products Inc. stopped producing flamingos and other lawn ornaments at its Leominster factory in June, and is going out of business Nov. 1  a victim of rising expenses for plastic resin and electricity, as well financing problems.

[Nightfall]

Am I the only one who has never in his life seen one of those things in somebody's yard? I've seen gnomes and the like, but never a plastic pink flamingo...

[Guest]

What??

 

[Fly320s]

At the airport in Syracuse, NY (better known as Siberia-cuse), there are plastic pink flamingos near the departure end of runway 28.  During winter, the flamingos migrate south and the plastic penguins move in. 

[280plus]

LOL,,,that's cool...

[280plus]

Hold on, let's back uphere, NEVER seen a plastic pink flamingo?

You need to get to more tag err, yard, garage, sales.   

[AmbulanceDriver]

For several years now my younger brothers' youth group has done a fundraiser by going out in the middle of the night and planting a couple dozen pink flamingos in someone's yard.  The fundraiser part is that people pay to pick whose yards the flamingos will show up in, and then the "victims" can either way 5 days until they are removed free of charge, or they can pay to have them removed.  They can also purchase "flamingo insurance" to guarantee that if someone orders a flamingoing on their house, the flamingos end up in the yard of the person who ordered the flamingoing.

It's a lot of fun for the church, raises good money for the youthgroup, and drives the parents (and older brothers) of the youth slightly nuts driving them around town in the middle of the night.

And just *TRY* to explain to a cop why you're out driving around at 3 in the morning with your two younger brothers and six dozen plastic flamingos. 

[Car Knocker]

The aviary here has the same fundraiser.

[Nightfall]

Hold on, let's back uphere, NEVER seen a plastic pink flamingo?

You need to get to more tag err, yard, garage, sales.   

I'm kinda surprised I haven't seen 'em, actually. Somebody is always having a yard/garage sale in these parts... most everybody has a front yard too, this ain't the city...

I smell a conspiracy! 

[Perd Hapley]

Ambulance-skinner,

I'm sure it's all in good fun, but I believe those flamingos would end up in my trash can or thrown out in the street.  (No, I really can't say where them flamingers came from.  You say, they're just out in the street, huh?)

Or, the offending church would just be charged with trespassing.   

[crt360]

I'm sure it's all in good fun, but I believe those flamingos would end up in my trash can or thrown out in the street.

Now that they are going to be collectors items, no doubt worth big dollar in the near future, I'd just sell them on eBay.  When the church or whoever asks where they went, I'd just say they flew away or must have wandered over to someone else's place.

[Perd Hapley]

I'm probably taking this in the wrong way, of course.  I'm sure the people doing this fund-raiser aren't going to do anything their "victims" (probably friends of theirs) would get too upset about. 

I wouldn't like it, though.  I'd call and tell them to remove them and not to expect any money for a few years. 

[Guest]

What would Jesus do?

(Sue!)

Heh..I'm teasing. It really is done as a joke/fundraiser and no, I doubt anyone would do it if you would get mad. Personally, I'd be amused.

I wonder if the folks down in Indiana know that Old El Tejon would probably be willing to pay protection money (as long as its tax-deductable) for flamingo insurance?

[Perd Hapley]

Personally, I'd be amused.

Women are like that.

[Guest]

That explains how men have survived so long, eh?

[Perd Hapley]

How are those eyebrows comin'?   

[Guest]

Worry about that after you worry about the stuff sprouting out of your ears.