Superstitious fans leave statue of animated cat without whiskers

The country’s monuments have recently been gravely suffering from the population’s love of Soviet cartoons and hate of Russian spelling lessons.

Fans of a popular character from a Soviet cartoon, "The Cat from Lisukov Street" regularly vandalize a statue of their hero in the southern Russian city of Voronezh.They break off the cat's whiskers and tail, which are thought to bring good luck.City authorities are tired of having to replace the missing cat parts. Now they are planning to recast the monument out of something more solid.Another unfortunate monument – for one to the world's great scientists – was recently unveiled in the Western Russian city of Bryansk. The names of Albert Einstein and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky were misspelled.Bryansk’s authorities have launched an investigation into the outrageous displays of illiteracy.