Why 12-foot Halloween skeletons have become year-round fixtures across Los Angeles

The undead are invading L.A.They wear Santa hats and sunglasses, American flags and pool floaties. Some stand erect, towering over houses and neighborhoods. Others rot in the California sun, disintegrating into bony fragments. A pelvis atop two legs in a driveway. A skull peering over a rooftop.They are, of course, giant 12-foot skeletons. And if they’re not in your neighborhood already, they probably will be soon.Released by Home Depot in 2020, the Halloween prop known as “Skelly” has transmogrified from a meme into a movement. At first mostly limited to the month of October and maybe a week or two in November, many skeletons now stay up year-round as their proud owners deck them out with whatever theme fits the latest holiday: Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July, etc. Giant skeletons sit in the yard of a home on N. Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. (Arwen Clemans / Los Angeles Times) Some are political: a Putin skeleton puppeteering an undead Trump, or a skeleton with a sign that says “Not vaccinated, see you soon idiots!” Others are the subject of fights with cities and homeowners associations. In L.A. and its environs, they’re everywhere: Highland Park, Venice, Culver City, West...