The Cure For What’s Palin Ya

So this morning I’m reading that our long national West Hollywood nightmare is over. Apparently the Orange Grove Avenue homeowners who, under the guise of Halloween decorations and the protection of the First Amendment, costumed a mannequin to represent Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin that they then hung by the neck from their roof, have finally caved in to pressure from neighbors and elected officials and cut her down.

Was it a tasteless display lacking in all propriety? Absolutely.

Did I think it needed to be taken down? Well, I’m certainly not sorry to see it gone as it stood — er, hung — but had the people responsible been a little less angry and a little more creative, not only would Palin still be aloft, but she would never ever ever have garnered the overblown exposure and outcry.

It would have been a simple compromise really — especially since part of the installation includes another mannequin representing John McCain emerging out of a fake-flame engulfed chimney above her. Just remove the noose and fashion the rope as strings dangling from a crosspiece in McCain’s hands down to Palin’s arms. And voila: a political statement of puppet and puppetmaster, with none of the deplorable implications of violence and death. I guarantee you no one but the neighbors and passers-by would have known about it. FTW.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."