Le Grand Pisseur

I am sorry to resort to my rusty French to explain to you what you see in today's Miami photo. I call it "Le Grand Pisseur."

There is a very famous bronze statue named "Le Petit Pisseur" in Brussels. In reality, its real name is Manneken Pis (literally Little Man Pee in Marols, a Dutch dialect spoken in Brussels, also known in French as le Petit Julien.) Le Petit Pisseur is a famous Brussels landmark. It is a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. It was designed by Hiëronymus Duquesnoy the Elder and put in place in 1618 or 1619. This little boy is adorable, holding his wee wee to pee, eyes closed and face happy as happy can be. There are many legends but my favorite one is that he peed to put out the fuse lit by the enemy troop that would have ignited the explosive to destroy his city. If someone does that to Miami, I would have my own little bronze statue here, probably in Coconut Grove. I can't leave this without telling you that Hergé, a world famous creator of child reporter Tintin, knew about this legend, and in one of his story, had his famous dog Milou put out a fuse of a kettle of dynamite in the same manner.

Well, what am I talking about? The city of Miami (Coral Gables, Coconut Grove and other cities as well) have continually added traffic circles to slow down traffic and to defeat speeding offenders. Ornamental flowers, hedges and small trees are used to decorate these circles. Water trucks like the one you see here goes around town to keep the plants in tip top shape. When "le grand pisseur" comes around to piss on the plants, we all have to yield right of way. To do this, "le grand pisseur" has its pants down and thank heaven, that unsightly view is blocked by the car in front of me. Otherwise, this photo would be unfavorable because of the indecent exposure taking place in broad day light!

There you have it!