(no subject)
Strangely, today's big news story locally was a lighting strike at a local landmark. Last night the King of Kings statue (more commonly known as Big Butter Jesus or Touchdown Jesus) was struck by lightening and burned down. All that is left now is the steel support beams. If you've never heard of the status I'm talking about, it's a fairly famous landmark on I-75 between Dayton and Cincinnati, about 6 stories high, showing Jesus from the torso up with his hands up (hence Touchdown Jesus). There is also a song from the Bob and Tom morning show by Heywood Banks called Big Butter Jesus that's pretty amusing (search it on youtube--there are tons of videos-- mostly with different photo montages in the background).
It's weird-- I always thought the thing was obnoxious and ugly, but I'm really sad that it's gone. Even though it was tacky, it was... well, awesomely tacky, I guess? I don't know, it's just shocking. You don't ever expect to hear that the giant Jesus sculpture went up in flames, you know? I know the church is going to rebuild it (it's a very big, wealthy church-- they had to be to build the first one!). They played the 911 call from someone reporting "Touchdown Jesus" on fire and it's both terrible and hilarious that the caller and dispatcher are both trying not to laugh. So of course everyone (including me) is joking that Butter Jesus melted or that it's a sign from the World Cup that real football doesn't have Touchdowns... ;)