Living It Up

Manny Quin, he of the wooden expression, the only East Hampton Town Police officer who is allowed to come to work without his pants on, can be thankful today for a relatively quiet year. It's been a long time since the blue-uniformed dummy was kidnapped from his post behind the wheel of a police car, taken joy-riding, and left at the town dump, looking as if he'd been pole-axed. The scars have been sanded over, so to speak.

For a couple of Manny's kin, the year has been more eventful. In Oshkosh, Wis., for example, an unseasonable cold snap this month did in an inflatable rubber relation, which partially deflated right in the front seat of its cruiser and prompted a rash of phone calls reporting an officer slumped over, mouth agape, the victim of apparent foul play.

Then there's Ms. Happy, who belongs not to a police department but to a group of Canadian firefighters. Ms. Happy, a canvas mannequin who doubles as a victim in fire drills, was abducted during a Labor Day fire-fighting competition and hasn't been seen since, though she's been heard from plenty.

A letter to her chief postmarked Flint, Mich., enclosed a photo of the missing volunteer sitting on a bench. A few weeks later she turned up in Anaheim, Calif., dressed in black leather and perched on a motorcycle, looking somewhat the worse for wear.

Most recently, the Canadians got a letter from Long Island enclosing a photo of Ms. Happy taking her ease in a garden, unmistakably dressed to resemble Martha Stewart.

In "Living" color. Ms. Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.