Black Rock Desert, Nevada (Reuterus) - More than 40,000 Burning Man festival attendees awoke this morning to the charred remains of their patron saint, the Burning Man (a twelve-meter high wooden effigy), who erupted in flames days ahead of the scheduled grand finale on Saturday.
Spontaneous combustion has not been ruled out. However, authorities think that they have the person responsible for the carnage in their custody. If so, he stands to face felony charges.
The rub is that pressing charges in a court-of-law seems somewhat at odds with the original intent of the eight-day festival of anarchy and artistic expression.
One festival old-timer and purist (long before the annual event became popular) had this to say: "I remember the old days when no behavior was off-limits. Guys from Survival Research Laboratories were blowing their hands off in the name of 'artistic expression'. Nowadays, seems like anarchists are becoming slightly too law-abiding. At any rate -- who wants to get naked?!?"
