Pe_fo_mance A_t

GREENCASTLE, Ind. -- A consonant-loving thief has police and business owners baffled after dozens of Rs were stolen from signs throughout the community.

"We've lost our Rs. And we want them back," said Randall Jones, president of Headley Hardware. The weekend caper targeted gas stations, restaurants, repair shops and medical offices in the city of 10,000 people about 40 miles west of Indianapolis.

The thief also nabbed half a dozen letters from a lighted marquee in front of a National Guard post. "I don't know if they think it's a joke, but to me it's just theft," said National Guard Sgt. Robert Lamb. "I just think it's disturbing."

Putnam Inn manager Jane Hansen isn't sure how the thief climbed more than 6 feet off the ground to take Rs from a sign in front of her motel.

"Whoever's doing it needs to put their talents to something more constructive," she said. Greencastle police said they've been notified about the stolen letters, but many business owners are choosing not to file reports.

A rather stupid and bizarre crime. If the perpetrator is caught, he or she would be wise to deflect attention by terming it "performance art."

Why not? The term can be applied to anything, thus rendering it meaningless.

I'm neither a student of art nor an artist, but I have a useful layman's method of identifying real art. If I look at something called art and think "I could never do that," it's probably art.