"There Are Doors" Comes To Japan

On 5/23/05, James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net> wrote: Japanese man gets jail time for 'kidnapping' dolls May 23, 6:12 AM (ET) TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for snatching mannequins used by a cake shop chain to tout its wares. "Peko-chan," a round-eyed doll around the size of a six-year-old, has been used by Fujiya Co. Ltd. to sell sweets for five decades and her grinning countenance is a familiar sight in front of shops around Japan. Recently, however, she has become a favorite of collectors, leading to a rash of "Peko-chan" snatchings. Takeishi Shibuya, 31, was convicted of stealing 15 of the large dolls, valued at about 1.1 million yen ($10,170), a court official in Yamagata prefecture, northern Japan, said on Monday. In several cases, Shibuya used pepper spray and spray paint to fend off store employees, leading prosecutors to demand a sentence of nine years in prison. "But he has reflected on his crimes and feels bad about what he did, so the sentence was lighter as a result," the official said. After a wave of "Peko-chan" disappearances last year, the company suggested chaining the dolls down, but customers complained that this would be cruel. _______________________________________________

On 5/23/05, James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net> wrote: Japanese man gets jail time for 'kidnapping' dolls May 23, 6:12 AM (ET) TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for snatching mannequins used by a cake shop chain to tout its wares. "Peko-chan," a round-eyed doll around the size of a six-year-old, has been used by Fujiya Co. Ltd. to sell sweets for five decades and her grinning countenance is a familiar sight in front of shops around Japan. Recently, however, she has become a favorite of collectors, leading to a rash of "Peko-chan" snatchings. Takeishi Shibuya, 31, was convicted of stealing 15 of the large dolls, valued at about 1.1 million yen ($10,170), a court official in Yamagata prefecture, northern Japan, said on Monday. In several cases, Shibuya used pepper spray and spray paint to fend off store employees, leading prosecutors to demand a sentence of nine years in prison. "But he has reflected on his crimes and feels bad about what he did, so the sentence was lighter as a result," the official said. After a wave of "Peko-chan" disappearances last year, the company suggested chaining the dolls down, but customers complained that this would be cruel. _______________________________________________ Urth Mailing List To post, write urth at urth.net Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net

Just a general obsession with dolls...treating them like people ala the concern that chaining them would be cruel. My first thought when I read the article was TAD. (shrug) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maru Dubshinki" <marudubshinki at gmail.com> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net> Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 8:56 PM Subject: Re: (urth) "There Are Doors" Comes To Japan I'm afraid I plumb missed the 'There are doors' connection- I don't see how it ties in. Explanation please? ~Maru On 5/23/05, James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net> wrote:

Japanese man gets jail time for 'kidnapping' dolls May 23, 6:12 AM (ET) TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for snatching mannequins used by a cake shop chain to tout its wares. "Peko-chan," a round-eyed doll around the size of a six-year-old, has been used by Fujiya Co. Ltd. to sell sweets for five decades and her grinning countenance is a familiar sight in front of shops around Japan. Recently, however, she has become a favorite of collectors, leading to a rash of "Peko-chan" snatchings. Takeishi Shibuya, 31, was convicted of stealing 15 of the large dolls, valued at about 1.1 million yen ($10,170), a court official in Yamagata prefecture, northern Japan, said on Monday. In several cases, Shibuya used pepper spray and spray paint to fend off store employees, leading prosecutors to demand a sentence of nine years in prison. "But he has reflected on his crimes and feels bad about what he did, so the sentence was lighter as a result," the official said. After a wave of "Peko-chan" disappearances last year, the company suggested chaining the dolls down, but customers complained that this would be cruel. _______________________________________________

------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 23:15:28 -0500 From: "James Wynn" <thewynns at earthlink.net> Subject: Re: (urth) "There Are Doors" Comes To Japan To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net> Message-ID: <000301c56660$e20a5a30$60a3f63f@wynnhouse> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Just a general obsession with dolls...treating them like people ala the concern that chaining them would be cruel. My first thought when I read the article was TAD. (shrug) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maru Dubshinki" <marudubshinki at gmail.com> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net> Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 8:56 PM Subject: Re: (urth) "There Are Doors" Comes To Japan I'm afraid I plumb missed the 'There are doors' connection- I don't see how it ties in. Explanation please? ~Maru On 5/23/05, James Wynn <thewynns at earthlink.net> wrote:

Japanese man gets jail time for 'kidnapping' dolls May 23, 6:12 AM (ET) TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for snatching mannequins used by a cake shop chain to tout its wares. "Peko-chan," a round-eyed doll around the size of a six-year-old, has been used by Fujiya Co. Ltd. to sell sweets for five decades and her grinning countenance is a familiar sight in front of shops around Japan. Recently, however, she has become a favorite of collectors, leading to a rash of "Peko-chan" snatchings. Takeishi Shibuya, 31, was convicted of stealing 15 of the large dolls, valued at about 1.1 million yen ($10,170), a court official in Yamagata prefecture, northern Japan, said on Monday. In several cases, Shibuya used pepper spray and spray paint to fend off store employees, leading prosecutors to demand a sentence of nine years in prison. "But he has reflected on his crimes and feels bad about what he did, so the sentence was lighter as a result," the official said. After a wave of "Peko-chan" disappearances last year, the company suggested chaining the dolls down, but customers complained that this would be cruel. _______________________________________________

On Jun 2, 2005, at 7:34 PM, Dan wrote: Oddly enough, i just finished reading There Are Doors this morning. It was the best Philip K. Dick novel I ever read that was not written by Philip K. Dick. What of Mr. Klamm's relationship to Mr. Green? Same guy at two different times or just two different blokes in the same circumstances (only one is beginiing his pursuit and the other nearing the end)?

On Jun 2, 2005, at 7:34 PM, Dan wrote:

Oddly enough, i just finished reading There Are Doors this morning. It was the best Philip K. Dick novel I ever read that was not written by Philip K. Dick. What of Mr. Klamm's relationship to Mr. Green? Same guy at two different times or just two different blokes in the same circumstances (only one is beginiing his pursuit and the other nearing the end)?

Hi, It's been a while since I've read it so I won't answer this here, but, if you haven't already, read The Castle by Kafka. It really deepens the experience, and a lot of things will fall into different perspectives.. enjoy, Adrian