It is not very often anyone gets to see his own brother burnt in effigy. Yet I was in attendance when a wooden man who's head was wrapped 360 degrees with photographs of my brother's head was placed on a bonfire in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado last weekend. See attached picture for explication.

This dubious event took place in front of my impressionable five-year-old daughter who had traveled some 2000 miles with me to view the spectacle.

This was the second annual occurrence, and appears to go against the grain of usual effigy burning, in that most of the hundred-plus attendees professed warm feelings toward the object of their attention. But it reminds me that there are hazards to being a public figure, which I will continue to try to avoid.

That made for two consecutive bonfire-related and tent-dwelling weekends spent with nice people in fine natural environments. Not bad.