Sunday, December 14, 2008

Dino Disaster

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," o ye of good cheer! Curmudgeons are not welcome here!

All ten of you who follow the exploits of "The Gods Are Bored" will know that we have been leaving toy dinosaurs in a local park anonymously for about five years. The park is dedicated to a famous dinosaur found locally. Before we began our white magick, the site was marked by a plaque and a bench. *yawn* We decided to make the little spot more kid-friendly. And we succeeded, as measured by anecdotal evidence.

About a month ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story about the aforementioned famous dinosaur. Lo and behold, there on the front page of the Science section, was an artful picture of our official "Gods Are Bored" dinos, arrayed across their bench! The caption reads: "Toy dinosaurs are left at the site where Tyrannosaurus Oliviana was found in 1847."

I was so proud! Anonymous magick, given colorful, front-page coverage in a major metropolitan newspaper!

I'll bet you can guess where this is leading.

Today when I went to the dino park, all of the toy dinosaurs were gone. The bench stood completely empty for the first time in five (or more) years.

Luckily I had four dinos in the trunk of my car. I put them on the bench, at the very far edge, in a craven cluster. It's almost as if they're saying, "Please don't steal us! Just play and move on!"

Then I went to the thrift store to get more dinosaurs. But alas, it's the most wonderful time of the year. The toy dinos they had there were great-looking, and big, and high-priced, and definitely items anyone would steal.

If you are tripping over unwanted plastic dinosaurs in the dark of the night, send me an email. I'd like to replenish the population. No, let's say I will replenish the population. There are plenty of thrift stores and flea markets around here with affordable merchandise. As soon as Christmas is over, the dinos will start accumulating again.

It's just sad to see, after all these years, that some person decided to pinch the toys. I hope at least that they're going to a kid who loves dinosaurs and wouldn't get any otherwise.

14 comments:

yellowdoggranny said...

i'll start gathering them up and maybe even find some dinosaurs books...they need t build a sand lot so kids can bury and find the dinosaurs..

Anonymous said...

I think my dinos have all gone to other homes but will check. Do you have a link to the Inquirer article? I would love to see the picture.

Lavanah said...

I will start collecting some for you, too. I will give a yell when I have a herd? pod? thunder? of them.

sageweb said...

I will keep a DIno eye out and see what I can do.

KrisMrsBBradley said...

If I run across any, I will definitely pick them up.

Anne Johnson said...

The picture didn't run with the article on the Philly news site. And the story was about something going on in a museum in Philly, so the toy dinos are not mentioned in the text.

Maebius said...

I'm sure I can dig up some dinos around our old toy box. We had a lot of them from when the sprogling was tyounger, and I doubt they all got lost in the backyard or sent to the local park sandbox (where some of them got left intentionally after reading your initial story!).

Anne Johnson said...

Oh, Maebius! You mean the dino magick has spread beyond my town? Joy!

Maebius said...

Yep, though the dinos have evolved into more of a "park sandbox gets all sorts of leftover shovels, trinkets, and other small rubber-toys that we don't play with." It was inspired by your Dino-magick though. It's fun to go back to the park and see "our" toys still there, more sun-bleached and scuff marked. :)

Dawtch said...

I have a 5 - no wait, he turned 6 on Sat - year old I'm sure I can dig up some dinos that he hasn't looked at in forever & a day...I know Dollar Tree had a pretty good selection of little plastic ones the other day for a buck a piece...where would I send them to..?
bb
dawtch

Dawtch said...

Oh yeah, I was going to mention - you do know you can delete unwanted comments, right..? Feel kinda silly asking as I'm sure you do know, but just in case...
ahem...
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dawtch

Cat C-B (and/or Peter B) said...

Anne--trust the dinos. They may well be on a special mission somewhere; possibly they did need to hitch a ride with some unscrupulous person to get there, but they do have powerful magic.

All will be well. And perhaps, like traveling garden gnomes, they will find a way to get word back to you, one day.

(If this happens, I'm hoping you will share!)

Shehuntstoo said...

gathering dinos now!
where to send?

Shehuntstoo said...

gathering dinos now!
where shall I send them ?