Chock Full O' Whatever

Every year, a few unfortunates tempt fate by walking on thin ice. (Or, in some cases, driving on thin ice. But that's another matter entirely.) We, being winter wary and weary, have avoided ice for the most part). We could not, however, resist the lure of art shacks on ice (a.k.a Art Shanty Project). Basically, artists (and crafters for my craft-crazed comrades) and others set up shop on a (solidly) frozen lake for a few weeks and invite the rest of the world (okay, more like the Twin Cities metro) to test fate and venture forth.

So we did. B. spent a fair amount of time in the sculpture workshop -- basically a mobile woodworking shop in what looked like a Gypsy cart -- making a wooden sculpture of a walrus with the help of a man who rather resembled Grizzly Adams, and the limnology shack wherein one could fish lake water from a hole in the ice and examine the multitude of phytoplankton. It really put the old admonition not to swallow the water when swimming in a lake or stream into perspective. That and the occasional dead body dredged up from our urban lakes.

I think it's safe to say that Art Shanty -- like butter sculpture and seed art -- is proof of a truly unique arts culture here in flyover country. What's your "only in [PLACE]" story? My lovely Boston readers (all two of you) must have stories of baked beans and green beer to tell. You must!

Can it really be that this whimsical slice of American life was taken by someone named Stephen Piggy? Also, how did they train the squirrel to make eye contact? So many unanswered questions ...