Hey, I was just kidding with my comment about carving up the 'hog for the exports market, but it seems someone somewhere wasn't kidding: news this morning on the signing off on a $30,000 plan to turn our iconic sub-$10,000 festive mascot into a $300,000 celebrity packing big-money corporate endorsement deals, maybe even a fire-suit plastered with Rust-Ease stickers, who knows, the sky's the limit, right? And what the hey, we'll still retain our finder-agent's fee 15% of him! which is what, a flank-steak?

"Drew spoke of a 'holistic strategy that integrates and cycles all communications activities to build and manage Willie's brand value.' The idea is to 'use Willie as a financial asset,' rather than just a white groundhog who pops up once a year to get a lot of media attention for one day and kick off a local festival. 'He has to be an all-season brand, not just a winter festival.'
[ PR firm to sell Wiarton Willie ]

Somedays, y'know, I am just flabbergastedly astounded at the gleeful abandon with which some people can so totally miss tremendous opportunity in their haste to shoot themselves in the foot.

No matter, I suppose: I still know what the Imbolg is for, and what to do with the day of it, and why, and why that's important, and I expect a lot of other folks down there at the pancake pre-prog proceedings will know it too, so it doesn't really matter what the dunderheads do who can't even really get into that now of it anyway. But its still kind of sad to see the chance just slip through their billfolds into the bright-white trash.