Explanation about the hideous pink pigs

Or, Reason #473 I'm glad to be home:

So, I gather you were all a bit alarmed by the florescent pink piggies?  Well, they're not exactly pigs, although I don't get the real difference.  They're javelinas, and they are Arizona's unofficial mascot, from what I could gather.  They have statues all over the place that are done by different artists (but all using the same basic statue). 

For instance, we also saw this one on the same block in Sedona:

These kind of city-wide statues are pretty common, New York has their cows and Baltimore has its crabs.  And as un-cute as crabs are, this:

is on a different level than this:

But I guess we can't blame AZ for choosing the javelina to be their mascot-thingy. I mean, what else do they have to choose from?  I'll tell you: 5 different kinds of poisonous snakes, grizzly bears, cougars, bobcats, and scorpions.  Have I mentioned how happy I am to be home?  Because last night was the first night I got into bed without shaking out my sheets, and it felt great.

Comments

[Carolyn J.]

My city did these with buffalo a while back. But they look MUCH tamer. Yikes.

[Isabel]

Seattle had pigs a few years ago and they were awesome. Over Christmas this year they had nutcrackers, which weren't as awesome.

[rachel]

Those pigs are seriously scary. Our crabs were much cuter!