Catching Up is Hard to Do
Well, you know... what can I say. I've been reading some books and doing some research and then out of left field something has come up that has and will inspire a good part of the second Manny Tippitoes book. This guy destroyed some swan eggs. That, in and of itself, is senseless and destructive but also petty and pretty trivial. The Swan Pond is the center of the small town/suburb I grew up in.

Photo by Dennis Nett, Syracuse Post-Standard

People gather by it, swans are on the village seal, and it is as close as Manlius, NY will ever get to a tourist attraction. So when the two swans that live there (Manny and Faye) had eggs for the first time in awhile people were excited. When a town employee found seven of the eight eggs broken on a Sunday morning people were incensed. As one editorial from a local paper put it, it was the equivalent of burning the flag. (Thanks for the clipping, mom.)
There were rewards posted and ultimately the culprit turned himself in. It's been a little bit of home town drama for me to keep an eye on and a source of some inspiration.
 There is all kinds of mythology and folklore centered around swans. Celtic and Norse mythology abound with stories of swan maidens and Jean Sibelius entitled one of his most famous works Swan of Tuonela. There's some material there.