Well, folks, I'm back from a trip to see relatives and the inimitable Art
Weil in Cincinnati. I have seen copies of Art's books, "Shell Shocked" and
"The Wentletrap Book", and can recommend each of them highly. He took me to
a seafood restaurant on a river barge and then ate a salad -- most
surprising, that Art Weil! As expected, he is keeping busy with other
conchological projects and we can expect to see more from him any year now.
And, of course, he keeps us posted from time to time on the doings of the
famous Flying Pigs, Conch-L's unofficial mascots.

The flying pigs of Cincinnati turn out to be quite real. They began as
whimsical sculptures of pigs with wings, emerging as the spirits of pigs
from smokestacks on the Riverwalk. The joke is rather a complex one. We say
of an impossible event, "It will happen when pigs fly!" And Cincinnati was
historically known for raising and rendering pigs, using "everything but the
squeal", to such a point that it was nicknamed Porkopolis. For Cincinnati's
bicentennial, the city converted its old, decaying riverfront into a
beautiful Riverwalk, complete with the spirits of pigs -- the only part,
other than the squeal, that was not used. Well, the renewal must have seemed
impossible at the time.

Since then, the city of Cincinnati has taken up the flying pig as its
emblem. You can buy soft flying pig toys, flying pig board games, flying pig
postcards. An annual Flying Pig Marathon is run. And this year, full-size
pigs, some with wings and some without, have been placed all over the city,
each one painted by a different artist. About 70 have been placed on public
view so far, and they will be auctioned off later to benefit the arts. I saw
one pig covered with letters of the alphabet, another with Oz characters,
and a third delightfully standing up on one leg and with leaves sprouting
from its wings, painted to resemble a blooming garden. This last one, named
Topigary, was in Piatt Park near a restaurant called Mullane's (which serves
a mean raspberry pie).

Which brings me to the tragic conclusion of this message. Only a day after
we ate downtown at Mullane's, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the
flying pig was missing from Piatt Park! Drag marks and a trail of broken
leaves strongly suggest foul play -- perhaps even a pignapping. Terrible!
Piatt Park will not be the same without this charmer.

So if anyone has seen a pig answering to "Topigary", painted like a garden
in full bloom and with the stubs of green leaves on its wings, please inform
the Cincinnati authorities immediately.

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama