Don't Fear the Hodag
Last week, Stacey and I went to Rhinelander, Wisconsin for her college roommate's wedding. Rhinelander is the home of the Hodag, an invented hoax-creature ó like a jackelope ó that amounts to their local mascot. Although we didn't have time to visit the Rhinelander logging museum to see the actual Hodag (statue) ourselves, I still delighted in all the various local establishments named for the creature, including (among others) Hodag Honda, Hodag Lanes, and Hodag Guns & Loan. I very nearly purchased some of our hotel's Hodag paraphernalia for my very own ó the "I saw the Hodag" baseball cap was the frontrunner, just behind the stuffed Hodags ó but financial prudence prevailed.
Comments
According to my father, Rhinelander also used to be (still is?) home to a papermill, which he toured one summer as a lad. (These are the family stories you get when you are the granddaughter of a paper chemist.)