Because it can’t be summer in St. Paul without sidewalk art, the city has again commissioned polyurethane statues to be decorated by various artists, placed around town for a while, auctioned off to rich people with too much money and then to be forgotten (see Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy’s doghouse, etc.)

But unlike the previous Charlie Brown and other Charles Schultz-related statues (which have a logical local connection) the Science Museum of Minnesota’s 100th anniversary will be celebrated by recycling dinosaur statues from an identical Aurora, Illinois promotion.

And unlike the previous statues, which were manufactured locally in Highland Park, the African Rebbachisaurus will be made in Odessa, Nebraska and shipped north.

Since when does ripping off Aurora, IL ever sound like a good idea? Instead, I suggest the Science Museum should honor the Hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur whose remains are the only dinosaur fossils to ever be found in the state.

But instead, we’ll be subject to an Illinois promotion around an African dinosaur made by a Nebraska company (painted by out-of-state artists? We’ll see). Sure promotes local Saint Paul to me!

Could it be the Rebbachisaurus is the best thing to come out of Aurora since Wayne’s World? Hmmm…Party on, Wayne.