In other news, two Sunday’s ago I was nominated and elected to become the first Ruling Elder for Christ Central Presbyterian Church. I have the Presbytery’s examination at the end of the month which I need to study a bit more for.

Yes, it was someone’s birthday and they had a pinata (/pinyata/). If you do not know, a pinata is (now-a-days) a paper mache’ object filled usually with candy which one tries to break open with a bat. The custom apparently goes back to the orient.

At first I remembered one of Dave Barry’s great columns on a party with a “Cinderella” pinata. His telling is quite humorous (and equally disturbing) if you can picture little kids trying to literally beat the stuffing out of Cinderella. Well, this party did not have Cinderella thankfully.

So, naturally curious I had to find out if it was Cinderella or her malnourished twin sister Belle. Alas, it was a blue VW Beetle design. Last time it was a birthday cake shaped pinata which makes sense. But a VW Bug for a pinata? Must have been a boy’s birthday. I guess a tank would be more appropriate here in Ithaca with the “No War” crowd. Or an elephant dressed in red so the parents can enjoy watching their kids demolish the symbol of the republican party. Or, maybe the store ran out.

Did you know that you can get talking pinatas that will say something every time you hit them? You can get a red-white-blue elephant (or donkey) that exudes wisdom with “Uncle Sam Wants You” and other things. At least the watermellon pinata says “Youch!” The brontosaurus is probably the coolest with taunts like: “Bring it on caveman” and “What? Are you extinct?”

Round after round they beat in the hood, smashed the windows, and dented the fenders of the Beetle with a large red plastic bat (The Club?) in an attempt to obtain the goodies inside. Ahh, the next generation of vandals and their friends are 100ft from me. Great. Perhaps I should take comfort in the fact that they are only 5-6 years old. Ten years from now they will be using crowbars and lock-pick guns to get into my car only to find that some 10-year old beat them to the stock, low-tech stereo system. I am going to start training my kids next week.