The back corners of this town hold all sorts of cool finds. I was on a bike ride the other day and came across this interesting sight, a massive sculpture of a tundra swan made from junk removed from the Mississippi River in 2003. Set alongside some of the still vacant buildings on the southeast corner of Banbury Place, the sculpture, by local artist Stephen Bateman, is accompanied by a sign explaining the origins and purpose of the piece – to create awareness of river cleanups across the Midwest. I’ve also seen it around town in temporary locations, like at the Open Air Festival of the Arts in Phoenix Park, but it looks like at least for now it’s found a more permanent home, overlooking downtown’s Eau Claire River. Finding stuff like this makes for a great bike ride.

You can read about this on TV 13’s website. There’s wild hogs in Crawford County!

“According to court documents, investigators believe former Gays Mills elk farmer Robert Johnson trapped 31 wild pigs in Texas and released them near the Kickapoo River in 2002. They want $31,000 in forfeitures -- $1,000 for each pig -- and unspecified money for environmental damage the pigs caused.” -- TV13

They say one of “Johnson's acquaintances” said Johnson wanted to start a pig population so hunters could hunt them on his ranch, but they are ruining some local crops. Plus, isn’t it just totally illegal to bring animals like that into the area? Is the climate even the same as in Texas?

This past weekend, some Homecoming jokesters yet again filled the fountain in Wilson Park with soap. But this time, the suds blew as far as two or three blocks away towards the YMCA and the Masonic Temple. I was driving down Graham Avenue and noticed all these chunks of white stuff floating around and tracked it back to the source. From what I've heard, this is really bad for the fountain, and quite difficult for city workers to clean up.

This is on Gray St in dowtown EC. Right in front of the noble Fedral Building with the big stone eagle on top. My bike does not like it. How the hell does a crater like ths happen? The city has really got to remedy this stuff.

Still can't find a street you’d call “horrible,” Mike?

From the Chippewa Herald last week: The newspaper's website (Chippewa.com) will now allow readers' comments to go up automatically, without someone approving them first. Story here.

Good move, Chip. While I can completely see why newspeople have the impulse to approve comments before posting them on their website, that's just not how the internet works. It's silly to try to control online communication top-down. Comments will still be monitored, but by the crowd of readers, who can flag something if it's offensive. I'm not sure what other local papers' policies are.

Here you can comment all willy-nilly, but blog posts like this one have to get approved first. Speaking of which, let's see some splashes in this here Community Pool!