The Problem With The Neighbors

It just isn't easy living next to some people. Sometimes you get a noisy neighbor who has loud parties. Sometimes you get one that appears to be assembling a very large collection of dead vehicles. Sometimes you can be pretty sure the neighbor is completely insane.

Or you could live next door to a giant snowman.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Snowzilla may be a smash hit with many city residents, but the towering 22-foot snowman has detractors closer to its Anchorage home.

Some neighbors of the two-story snowman say they are fed up with the hordes of gawkers clogging up Columbine Street.

"When you get 20 people out there in their cars, now the whole street comes to a stop and nobody can get through," said Anthony Bahler, who can see Snowzilla from his front window. "They just stand out there, in the middle of road, talking about a snowman."

Bahler's neighbor, Billy Powers, supervised construction of the original Snowzilla last year. Through the Internet, it became a media sensation, drawing crowds of visitors and TV crews from Japan and Russia before it melted in the spring.

This year, with the help from neighbors, Powers resurrected the snowman, with its giant hat made from tomato cages, corncob pipe and beer-bottle eyes. It is six feet taller than its predecessor.

Actually, I could understand why some of the neighbors aren't exactly thrilled with the traffic that the giant snowman generates. Perhaps posting pictures of it on the interwebby tubes would help. Nah, people travel to see balls of twine.