Grargh! Will Wynn Smash!!! Grargh! Credit: Photo by Richard Whittaker

Why exactly, people were asking in Council last Thursday, did Mayor Will Wynn have a plastic dinosaur on the dias?

Well, he called it a protest. It seems that there’s a fuss over Mangiasaurus Rex, the iconic pizza-guzzling dinosaur logo of Mangia Pizza. The big green extra-cheese machine, the statue of which has graced their Guadalupe site, may now be illegal and have to come down.

Poor Rex: he’s been kidnapped, shattered into a hundred pieces, revived by experts at the Texas Natural Science Center and, most recently, relocated to the roof of Wheatsville Co-op when Mangia moved from their old site to one without a flat surface for him to perch on. But now he’s facing a deadlier adversary: the city signage ordinances, which apparently he now violates.

But a valiant defender is riding to the rescue of this chop-licking lizard. Wynn noted that this just wasn’t right, because if it was Rex today, it was the enormous papier mache Peter Pan on South Lamar tomorrow, and he just wasn’t going to stand for it. So look for a revision of the signage ordinances soon, courtesy of the mayor’s office.

This article appears in October 19 • 2007.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.