The short one - a friend of a friend once won a pink flamingo photography contest with a photo of a pink flamingo at Stonehenge.
The long one: My mom once pulled an amazing prank on a friend. Over at least one year leading up to the woman's 40th birthday, Mom sent her random photos and postcards of flamingos from all over the world. Anytime any member of our family, or anyone else Mom knew, was traveling, she'd give us an addressed card or envelope with a picture to mail. I forget how long it lasted, but in the end the woman had a whole shoebox full of flamingo pictures, and had absolutely no clue who was behind it. She was also truly baffled by many of the postmarks, and the sheer numbers of different ones. I forget what prompted all this, but it's one of the best pranks I've ever heard. posted by dnash at 9:10 AM on July 12, 2001
The flamingo story is a familiar one, and always funny.
In the sweet movie The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Pulain, mentioned here before, the title character kidnaps the gnome her father has placed to overlook the yard shrine to her mother. She sends the gnome off with friends around the world. To spur her father out of his funk, pictures of it in famous places are sent anonymously back to him.
Subscribe
Forget the gnomes and flamingos, take the lawn jockeys.
posted by heather at 9:02 AM on July 12, 2001