While I have always wanted to pee on the Blarney Stone, I have not. Yet.
But when I was in New Zealand, South Island, I was with a couple of rather crazy locals and a few American tourists. We went to a lake… lake… Really Cerulean Blue, yeah, that was it, and they had a monument of a sheepdog there, sitting before a stunning view of Mounts Tasman and Hood.
It started miles before in the car, when we were told that it was a monument to a particularly bad dog who went rogue and took to killing sheep, but since he was, like, the best sheepdog out there, nobody could catch him, right? Never fucking caugh’ 'im. So he’s, like, a sort of a legeend around these parts, know?
Therefore, it was customary to have your photograph taken after climbing the base of the monument and mounting the dog.
So when we got there and we all stepped forth before the monument, we Virginians naturally suggested that our hosts should precede us, so that we might not offend by violating the sacred ritual. That was, of course, politely agreed, and we all mounted the dog, Kiwis first.
In front of a bus filled with Japanese tourists. I don’t want to create any stereotypes, here, but I saw a lot of cameras.
Well, it didn’t exactly stop there. We were, after all, in somewhat of a hurry, and there was a discernable line in front of what the thing was that our guests were insisting were “no facilities, whatsoever.”
That’s when I think it was decided that it was customary to pee on the lee side of the dog monument, facing the busload of Japanese tourists. I know I smiled for the cameras, though the monument was too tall to catch a short guy like me from the bus. No worries; several bold photographers ventured forth from the bus to document the ritual, though most were content to use their imaginations.
Come to think of it, this silly event has to be on the Internet somewhere by now. I’ll try to find it.
My apologies to the great nation of New Zealand in advance: you are the greatest place on earth, and I hope you will someday allow me to come back. And I love dogs, too.