I was disappointed he left out the part about trolls being used as landfill during this nation's great highway-building era of the 1950s. There is archival footage in Library of Congress which shows trolls getting run over by highway pavers and other large-scale industrial equipment, which is very important.

Yay for inflatable animals in the urban wilderness!

Xeni has the right attitude about all this. (i.e., "yay for eccentric humans doing their own thing no matter what fun-crushers may say.") Rock on.

*squeak-squeaks!*

I think one of the interviewees at the Furries vs. Trekkies bowling tournament about a month ago sums it up best:

"Anytime you can do anything that is alternative to the mainstream of reality, do it."

Honestly, furries are no different than any other geeky subculture like sci-fi or anime. Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but I think the folks throwing stones are the ones who have the real self-esteem issues.

Yeah, yeah, I know... furries are weird... but so what? There's nothing wrong with that. Heck, if we had more people who appreciated the cute and weird instead of holding up conformity as a virtue, the world would probably be a better place for it.

I mean, it just boggles the mind that folks (even on BoingBoing of all places!) try to one-up each other on proving how normal they are.

Ye gods, people.

Myself, I'm all about the cute and weird. I thrive on it. It's one of the main reasons I like sites like CuteOverload and BoingBoing. The people who get bent out of shape about furries aren't any different than the folks who thought D&D was satanic back in the 1980s.

Years ago, I got to have dinner with Trace Beaulieu of MST3K fame, and someone asked what he thought of the folks who dump on furries. As it turns out, the inter-geek warfare really disappoints him. Then again, he was a sci-fi fan in his pre-MST3K years, so I guess he knows how it feels to get mocked for liking something other folks think is "weird."

The bottom line is how you react to furries says more about you than it does about furries. I'm sure there will always be people who hold anyone who strays from the beaten path up as a target for derision. And that's too bad, because they don't realize how much cool stuff they're missing out on in this big weird wonderful world of ours.