There's been a spate of statue smashings in Venice and despite published reports, I hardly think a vandal is on the loose.

Officials credit "an isolated lunatic," and the case of course brought to the reporter's mind Laszlo "I am Jesus Christ!" Toth.

What it brought to my mind was something others apparently see as wholly different, though it's equally insane.

What's a little stone?, some might say.

It's at once an achievement and a document, a tangible record. But I suppose that's the materialistic Western imperialist in me talking.