By The Seat of Their Pants

The great state of California has long held a reputation as a place where strange people do strange things for strange reasons, perhaps coming from its position as center of the American entertainment industry. The latest bit of weirdness from the Left Coast, however, has nothing to do with celebrities or even Scientology, showing that odd behavior is not the exclusive province of Tom Cruise.
California appears to be suffering a minor epidemic of men found stuck in chimneys without their pants. You may remember this item that I clued you into a few weeks ago:

Santa? No! It's Naked chimney guy!

It concerns a man who got himself locked out of his house and attempted to gain entry via the chimney, first shedding his clothes lest they slow his descent.

On its own, its an anomaly; a weird but meaningless curiosity. But yesterday, I came across this item:

'Stargazer' Says He Fell Down Chimney

Now, it's a trend.

The latest incident involves a man who claims he was up on a roof to "look at stars" when he tumbled into the chimney and got stuck near the bottom. Thinking quickly, he removed his pants and began waving them around in order to set off the home's motion detectors and summon aid. Eventually, it worked, and he was subsequently arrested on suspicion of burglary.

The story he told about being up on the roof to look at stars doesn't wash, since his arrest for burglary would seem to indicate that this was not his house, thus why would he be stargazing from that particular roof? Maybe he meant that he took a few moments to check out the sky before going about his business of breaking in to the home and fell down the chimney moments before he would have jumped down it anyway.

So, what's behind this rash of pantsless men stuck in chimneys? Me--I blame global warming, the all purpose villain for the new millenium. Or maybe Californians really are as nuts as the rest of the country thinks they are. I do have an uncle out there who, in the few times I've actually seen him, has never quite struck me as being totally sane. Whatever the cause, I shall keep you abreast of further developments on the pantsless guy in chimney front as I hear of them.