"Head...Shoulders...Knees and...SOCKS!"

One summer during my early middle school years, I came home from sleepaway camp to discover an atrocity had occurred in my home.  You see, my parents had taken advantage of their only child being away for 4 weeks and took a much needed adults only vacation.  They drove down to Key West to hang out and play tourist.  They went browsing through the local shops and galleries.  And they bought a new coffee table.  But not just any coffee table, you see this one is a lion.  A lion laying on it's back with all four paws in the air with a free form piece of glass cut to lay within in his open mouth and upward paws.  And did I mention that it was anatomically correct?  Yes it had a penis.  My mom admitted that they had a hard time deciding between the lion and the giraffe coat rack.  But they liked the lion so much that they put it in the back of the car and ENDED THEIR VACATION EARLY to come home and put it smack dab in middle of the living room.  Which is exactly where I found it when I came home from camp.

Now you can imagine the horror I felt, being a young teen.  My parents of course thought it was no big deal.  I would cover the penis with a throw pullow when my friends came over.  (Because come on...there really is no need for that.  I can only imagine what the artist was thinking - and what did the coat rack look like?!)  As I got older, my friends got used to it, but there was always lots of giggling.  When my folks moved, the lion went with them.  I started to find it more amusing than embarrassing.

So you can imagine my surprise this morning when I was reading through BoingBoing and there in all it's glory was my parent's coffee table.  It only took about 20 years for this thing to be famous.  Apparently someone was selling it on eBay back in June and it's just now getting noticed.  My father was much amused and wants to know how much it sold for.

So here he is...in all his glory:



Man...I can't wait to inherit this thing!