The Colonel Sanders Curse

Japanese pro baseball team the Hanshin Tigers were especially rambunctious and giddy after a season championship victory in 1985. So much so, in fact, that a mob of over-exuberant celebrants ripped out a statue of Colonel Sanders from its moorings in front of an Osaka KFC restaurant, and proceeded to throw it into the Dotonbori river.

Subsequent attempts were made to retrieve the statue, but it was gone. And the Tigers never won a championship again. The disappearance of the statue has been blamed as part of the so-called "Curse of the Colonel".

Well, he's baaaaaaaack.

This week, a team of divers were sent to search for unexploded bombs (huh? I dunno. That's what all the news reports are saying) in the river and accidentally discovered the Colonel statue, looking not too bad after a quarter of a century at the bottom of the river. Japanese baseball fans are rejoicing and declaring long national nightmare is over: the Colonel Sanders Curse has been lifted by his statue's resurrection from its watery grave.

So what will become of the waterlogged Colonel now? KFC execs are in talks to bring it to America, in hopes it will bring good luck to the Chicago Cubs. (Seriously.)