Status: Weird News
Mrs. Broomfield of Colchester has a serious problem. Her neighbor,
Gnome Magic, has placed a gnome on top of a pole so that it stands higher than the hedge dividing their property. Mrs. Broomfield feels that the gnome is "peering" at her, and she's filed a complaint.
EADT reports:
Tourism attraction Gnome Magic, which features 750 of the ornaments in various scenes, created some heightened debate when it raised one of its characters up on a pole to attract visitors.
Following an objection, a Colchester Borough Council planning officer decided the display needed planning permission and the Dedham-based attraction submitted an application to keep the gnome on high...
Yesterday Peter Chillingworth, chair of the committee, said: “The gnome, which is on a pole, was put up without planning permission and one of our officers decided it needed to be considered formally.”
"There were speakers for and against the gnome. A neighbour objected and was really quite rude about it. She said it peered over her hedge and spoiled her view."
I know how she feels. There's a jackalope head hanging on my wall that's giving me funny looks right now.
Comments
My other question is how do you "spoil a vue over a hedge? Depending on height, all you would see is sky.
What has this to do with hoaxes?
It has to do with gnomes, a topic which has its very own category on my blog.
I won't try to pretend that there's any real logic to my fascination with gnomes, except that gnomes are often accessories to pranks, which are related to hoaxes.
I've been in that situation before. One place I worked at had one of those cut-out standup photos of a man, and it was positioned in the lunch room. It startled me regularly for the first week or two, even though I knew what it was.