Back in 2002, for various reasons, my family and I decided to give my stepfather a lawn gnome for Christmas.  The reasons for this are multitudinous and probably beyond the scope of this blog; let’s just say it was well earned.  To prepare my stepfather for the lawn gnome’s arrival, I put together a series of emails and photographs to send to him detailing the gnome’s global journey on its way to my stepfather’s home.  You can read all about the gnome’s journey here: The Journey of Dandelion Snailrider.

Today, my little sister found this report for me on the website of The Sun, a British newspaper with all the reliability and integrity of the late Weekly World News:  "Creepy Gnome Terrorises Town in General Guemes, Salta, Argentina."  The story comes complete with creepy gnome video goodness, and is worth checking out just for that.  She sent the link to me in IM, suggesting that the Argentinian town in question might be under the dominion of Dandelion Snailrider’s evil twin gnome.

This makes me happier than it really ought to.  I love the shot of the gnome limping along under the streetlight like a diminutive Igor with a conical hat.  I think it’s about 95% probable that this is either a hoax or some other critter being mistaken for an evil gnome, but it’s still kind of creepy.  I suppose that there’s a slight possibility that there’s a doorway opening between various dimensions, allowing an invasion of horrific beings to wreak havoc on the earth; I hope that’s not the case, though, because it would mean that my career as a horror fantasist would be over before it’s really begun.