Because I didn't feel like reading the news today…

…but did feel like following my nose through the internet. It's amazing what you can turn up.

Just for fun, I went to Youtube and typed "badger" into the search bar.

Found this really cool video (warning: contains scenes of a badger eating):

Doesn't the voice-over sound vaguely like a commercial? I kept expecting him to say: "Call now! Not available in stores!"

Loved the ending. Great denouement.

Then I looked a little lower down the list and…does everybody remember the Badger Song? Click here if not, but don't blame me.

Now watch this:

Does anybody else think the guy in the mushroom hat looks like Tom McMahon?

All this Badgerthink naturally led me back to this story:

UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area."

And why the hell not, I'd like to know? For crying out loud, no wonder we're still in Iraq.

Ha. Good times.

Found this great website - Steve Jackson's Badger Pages - with lots of info about the different kinds of badgers (Steve's a Brit, which makes me wonder more about that Iraq story). And this one, which is where I got the map you see to your left.

Of course everybody knows that Wisconsin is the Badger State, because in the 19th century lead miners would winter in caves they'd dug while mining – in holes, like badgers, and the name stuck.

Incidentally, those miners who headed into Illinois for the winter (because they were wimps) were nicknamed Suckers, after a fish in the Mississippi that did the same thing.

True story. You can not make this stuff up.

Anyway, that's why we're the Badgers. And - in the spirit of things you simply can not make up - take a guess: what is the scientific name of the American Badger?

Taxidea Taxus.

That explains a lot.

UPDATE - My teenage daughter loves the badger song. I fear for the future of our country.