Gritty

As mentioned in my previous post, the Japanese space program’s asteroid probe Hayabusa2 is set to fire an impact probe named “Mascot” into Asteroid Ryugu in October. Before that happens, however, there is exciting/alarming news from the Mascot front here on Earth.  The horrifying thing above is “Gritty,” the new mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers (a…hockey team from the rough-and-tumble “City of Brotherly Love”).

According to Gritty’s biography, he loves to eat hot dogs and wash them down with ice shavings from the Zamboni.  Apparently his father was also a bully.  Gritty’s name exemplifies the plucky attitude of the Flyers.  These peculiar details explain a lot, but they still doesn’t fully reveal exactly what Gritty is.  He sort of looks like “Animal” from the Muppet show grown to gargantuan size and without the social graces.

During the period I lived outside Philly in the late eighties I seem to recall the Flyers as being dangerous anti-social rejects from a chain gang, but maybe my memory is embellishing this history based on my fear of the kids who played hockey. Those guys were certainly bullies. Is one of them Gritty’s father?  Maybe I should look some old eighth grade acquaintances up on Facebook and ask if any of them slept with a psychedelic mop or a space yeti…or maybe we should relax and enjoy some more of this furry orange garbage fire whom the internet is already learning to love!

So Gritty!

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