The marketing gods have exacted their revenge on Joel Krupnik, by rendering him completely and verifiably insane. Remember Joel, the downtown New Yorker who put a jinx on the holiday season by desecrating its most visible symbol with a display of a decapitating Santa and severed dolls head in his front yard? A city transit strike and $1 billion in lost holiday sales ensued. But now, according to today’s New York Post, the hulking 6-foot-2 Krupnik has been charged with smearing dog feces on the back and in the hair of a 13-year-old girl. Her crime? Not picking up the dog pellets left behind by her Chihuahua. Krupnik has been hit with criminal mischief, menacing and harassment charges that could land him in jail for a year. How about life instead—in the looney bin.

—Posted by Steve McClellan