Kicker - Fighting with the Flintstones

NICK EICHER, HOST: Well, people don’t always see eye to eye on what counts as beautiful or whimsical.

Just ask Florence Fang. She lives in a tiny suburb near San Francisco and has been locked in battle with the powers that be for years over the design of her house.

And it’s not just any old house.

It looks like Fred Flintstone’s house by design. Google it and you’ll see what I mean. You could call it bulbous, rounded, painted in primary colors, cartoon-y.

AUDIO: Yabba, dabba, do!

Local officials don’t share the enthusiasm.

AUDIO: Yabba, dabba, don’t.

Kind of like that.

Town officials declared the place an eyesore.

Fang hadn’t applied for permits to add stone-age landscaping and lawn ornaments of Flintstones’ characters—Fred himself, Dino the dinosaur, Betty and Barney, too—and so, naturally, lawsuits commenced. Suits and countersuits.

Well, this week, Fang and the city settled. Barney and Betty Rubble and the rest get to stay put, and Fang will apply for permits for future changes.

Fang is an immigrant from China and she explains, this is her way of expressing her patriotic fervor. The audio from NBC Bay Area TV:

FANG: This house represented America’s drive force.This house is, to me, all about America.

Sadly, so are disputes and lawsuits.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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