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Tuesday, July 3, 2007

News Terror in Ashland!

Posted by Alison Hallett on Tue, Jul 3 at 9:51 AM

Well, kind of.

From SFGate.com:

I was just thinking what it must be like to live in Tel Aviv, or anywhere in Israel, and have to face this kind of thing every day,” Oregon Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Libby Appel said Friday, scanning the confused midday crowd on the festival’s plaza.

It was a crowd that included actors, technicians and house staff who should have been inside preparing for the afternoon’s matinee, as well as ticket holders caught in an unusual limbo. A suspicious package had been discovered in the area of Ashland’s Lithia Park closest to the Angus Bowmer Theatre.

“It actually was a hoax,” Ashland Deputy Chief Rich Walsh said in a phone interview a few hours later, after the bomb squad had investigated and exploded what turned out to be “some batteries taped together with wires protruding and a timing device attached.” It probably wasn’t meant to affect the festival, he confirmed. The package had been placed “right at the foot” of an unattractive, small white marble statue of Abraham Lincoln at the park entrance — a statue that has been the subject of much vandalism, ranging from messy taggings to beheadings. “It just recently got a new head,” Walsh said.

Lincoln, or his inept sculptor, may have been the target but it was the festival and the downtown plaza businesses that suffered the damage. The area remained closed off for almost five hours on a Friday at the height of Ashland’s tourist season.

Comments

Yeah, that Lincoln statue is a favorite for this kinda crap, but a fake bomb? So not funny. The worst I ever did was use some gum to stick a lit cigarette in his mouth and take a few pics.

So wise so young, they say never do live long.

What is an "Ashland"?

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