This past Saturday five Ohio girls got together to spruce up their small town of 12,000 with seventeen festive Mario blocks; you know, the coin blocks that are brown with a black question mark. Well, some passersby didn't like the looks of them and called in the sheriff, who then called in the bomb squad. The blocks were then carefully dismantled, revealing neither bombs nor coins. Where does one start? Well, here is the official home town newspaper article. Here is qwantz.com, the site that details how to make various power up and coin blocks, and chronicles the adventures of those who make them.

I think this is a great public art project. In the same way that Christo's gates were meant to bring color and wonder to a gray urban landscape so too are the Mario power up blocks.

Unfortunately, given the current climate of fear that has been fed to US citizens for the past four years, this small town in Ohio didn't stand a chance.

The town's police chief, Randall McCoy said, "The potential is always present when dealing with a suspicious package that it could be deadly...In today's day and age, you just cannot do this kind of stuff."

I agree with Mr. McCoy that a suspicious package should be treated with suspicion, but a power up block, really? Where is the common sense and sanity? Would Al Queda go through the trouble of making Mario blocks, fitting them with bombs, and hanging them around a town of 12,000? Doesn't sound like thier MO to me.

Oh well, I guess now that this story has gotten out, other towns afflicted with such scary vandalism will have a heads up.