It’s probably not surprising, given that I’ve never been there and don’t speak the language, but I’ll admit that I don’t get a lot about Japanese culture. Their game shows scare me, their video games and comics maybe even more so, and in general the Technicolor assault of their pop culture leaves me pretty confused. Also, while I guess someone had to make it possible to get a bunch of results on a Google image search for the words “shitting dicknipples,” I’m not sure I can thank the Japanese for being those guys. (Don’t click here) I did, however, enjoy the Envy half of last year’s Envy/Jesu split EP.

And I also like the fact that Hanshin Tigers fans were willing to vandalize a Kentucky Fried Chicken because of…um, baseball reasons? I’m a little more ambivalent on their rescue of the statue 24 years later, but “The Curse of Colonel Sanders” doesn’t seem that much less reasonable than, say, some BS involving a goat. The AP reports on the Colonel’s rescue.

A statue of the KFC mascot has been found in a river in Osaka, a city official said Wednesday, nearly a quarter century after being tossed in by crazed baseball fans who felt the image of restaurant founder Harland Sanders resembled a key team member.

“He was apparently found standing upright, which is fitting, because although he was a nice man he could also be very strict and demanding,” said Sumeo Yokakawa, a spokeswoman at the chain’s Tokyo headquarters.

She said the statue was taken from a nearby KFC restaurant and tossed in the river as part of a celebration by baseball fans in 1985, the year Osaka’s baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, won the national championship.

Local fans thought the Colonel bore a resemblance to Randy Bass, a bearded power hitter and first baseman from the U.S. who played for the team at the time.

Fans often jump into the murky river to celebrate the team’s successes, but there has been little to celebrate in recent years. Many fans feel the team has been plagued by the “curse of Colonel Sanders” since his effigy was submerged in 1985.

Thanks to Matthew Abrams for this story; no thanks to Alec Cumming for introducing me to the s-ing d-nipples. Jerk.