In case you missed it

As you all may have surmised from my light blogging, I've been busy this last week. I apologize to Standard Mischief for not noticing this at first. In a comment on the sickest "Christmas" display ever, he gave the link to the second sickest Santa display ever.

In an update, the New York Post reported Friday that someone kidnapped the original Santa's head and is holding it for ransom:

December 16, 2005 -- This is what happens when you're naughty.

Dollnappers have snatched the severed head of a doll from a creepy Bad Santa display and are holding it hostage until its owner writes, "I am sorry for being a bad boy" a thousand times.

A Brooklyn group calling itself "The 7th Avenue Boys for a Merry Christmas" stole the head Wednesday night from the creepy display, which Joel Krupnik and his family set up in front of their East 18th Street brownstone in Manhattan.

Krupnik, 58, said he has no intention of meeting the headnappers' demands.

"I wouldn't stoop so low," he said. "It's ridiculous." ...

A spokesman for the group, Dean, said its "commandos" swooped down on the $3 million home and stole the head after posting lookouts to make sure there were no cops.

"Although it's technically illegal, sometimes we have to cross the line and sacrifice our possible well-being to protect children's hearts and minds and their innocence," Dean, a father of two, said in an e-mail.

To back up his account, he included photos of the severed head.

Dean said the group would hold the head hostage until Krupnik, whom he called "this Grinch with a heart darker than Scrooge's," met one of the two following demands:

* Remove the display and write a thousand times, "I am sorry for being a bad boy. Next year I promise to be on top of Santa's good boy list!"

* Or, take his family to see Santa at Macy's in Herald Square, sit on Santa's lap and tell him "what a bad boy he has been."

If Krupnik fails to comply, the head will be "handed to our renegade elves at the North Pole and used to make wooden toy dolls for the boys and girls of New York City next Christmas."

Krupnik, a father of three, said he put up the display to protest against the commercialization of Christmas. After the holiday is over, he said, he plans to put the Santa and the head up for auction.

"Whatever highest bidder pays will go to the charity of his or her choice," he said. "This is to show people that when we put this up, we had no bad intentions towards anybody."

Krupnik said he expected the head to be stolen and if it is not returned, he'll simply get another.

While I don't condone the theft of private property, I won't shed a tear for Krupnik.