CLEARLY public art lovers can’t keep their hands off Danish sculptor Keld Moseholm’s piece, “On the Staircase”, in Petrie Plaza.

Two of the four little men are missing again after thieves took to the popular public art for the second time in two years.

In July, 2011, the beleaguered and abused sculpture was repaired and the artist recast the two little guys who had been stolen from their spots at the top of the stairs.

And Graeme Taylor from Mag Welding Services, who was fixing the damaged sculpture at the time, bravely pronounced: “This time we’re filling the entire staircase with concrete. We’ll stud the little guys in place and give them a good footing, so they should be pretty sturdy now.”

Director of ArtsACT David Whitney says the two little men have been remade and will be replaced eventually, but before that ArtsACT want to decide whether they should move the entire sculpture to a “safer location.”

Cut and paste

THEY say imitation is the greatest form of flattery… as ex-Canberra milliner Viktoria Novak found out. Viktoria’s bridal and race-wear millinery business has been taking off since she made the move to Sydney – so well, in fact, she’s got competitors copying her website word for word. Viktoria caught out another “bridal and racewear” business that copied and pasted her business information section on its Facebook page – but shamefully failing to remove Viktoria’s name from the content!

Speaker adds a voice

IS it the role of the Legislative Assembly Speaker to be rattling the tin for the imperiled Australian National Operatic Aria, which is sadly on its last financial legs, despite its vice-regal support and distinguished history over the past 50 years? Member for Ginninderra Vicki Dunne seems to think so, though she won’t be writing too many receipts. Her letter-headed missive urges would-be benefactors to contact spokesperson (and counter-tenor) Tobias Cole on 0437 375976.

No place like foam

IF you spotted a helmeted bunch of people running around the National Library waving swords recently, don’t fret – you’re not going mad. It was the Hundred Swords, a Canberra-based “battle sports” group, who say they are “regularly involved in melee battles of a medieval/fantasy nature”. Not much damage is caused, though – foam swords are their weapon of choice.

Cold comfort

Hip, new Braddon restaurant Eightysix had been so busy that it had to close on Anzac Day evening, having sold out of everything. “CityNews” dining reviewer Wendy Johnson says that they had resorted to serving free Mini-Magnums to disappointed guests.

Meanwhile, across town in Kingston on the same day, Me and Mrs Jones ploughed its way through an astonishing 960 coffees and 440 breakfasts/serves of food from 6am.

Running cold and hot

HERE’S a whacky bit of self promotion from local energy monitoring company Alexander Watson – it  is offering a $20,000 prize to heat up Canberra’s coldest house.

Five finalists’ entries will be reviewed by an unnamed panel of experts in order to determine who has the city’s coldest home.

CC wonders how serious it all is given that home owners (not renters?) are urged to generate body heat by having “fun” developing a video showing how cold it is at their place “to increase their chances of making it into the competition finals”. Frozen smiles before June 30 to coldesthouseincanberra.com

Jitterbug Jan

JAN O’Shea is coming to Canberra. Who? Well if you’re into swing dancing, like Irene Ryan, of the Southside Rock ‘n’ Roll Club, you’ll be trembling with excitement at the Centenary Kick Up Your Heels “Rock Around the Clock” dance night at the Albert Hall on June 15.

Irene says Sydney-based Jan, Australia’s Queen of Swing, has been winning titles for the jitterbug since 1957. She’s 72 and is still dancing and teaching. At  the age of 60 she also won the Austral Asian championship of rock ‘n’ roll and Lindy Hop. She will be hosting a workshop, 6.30pm-7.30pm, at the Albert Hall and, when the joint starts jumping, will perform a routine. Tickets from southsiderocknroll.com or 0439 538758.

Hmmms…

“ABANDON hope all ye who enter here,” reads an incredibly small piece of graffiti in the press box of the ACT Legislative Assembly.

RIDING home in the dark, helmeted journalist Stephen Easton spotted a woman cycling without wearing a helmet. Thing is, she was carrying something in her back basket… a bike helmet!

SO he comes all the way in from Bungendore to the Civic Medibank Private office to claim and is told, now that everything’s being done in Melbourne, his refund will be in his bank account in five working days, not the 15 minutes it used to be. That’s progress?

WHEN Canberra’s fledgling CBD was officially established in 1927, it was meant to be called Civic Centre, but then-Prime Minister Stanley Bruce vetoed the idea and it became officially known as City Centre.

PUN… No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

COLLECTIVE nouns… an ambush of tigers, a knot of toads and a rafter of turkeys.