perfidy

All these years, I've never really given much thought to them, and have remained uneducated about wolverines.

What, to my wondering eyes, should appear the other week but an article insert in the Economist of Feb 15th (really, just a sidebar), including a picture of a wolverine. Who knew they looked so much like beavers? Or would that be better stated as "fat-assed ferrets"? Silly me - I've always assumed it was just a small wolf. Not being from Michigan, I guess it's OK for me to have had such a gap in my knowledge. It's a shame that the online article omits the picture of the wolverine, as it was truly a nasty looking bugger. None of the first couple hundred wolverine pictures available in a Google Image search, after omitting those 90% which seemed to be related to the X-Men movies, came even close to capturing the bugger's nasty buggerishness.

Oh, and that article? (sorry - subscription only, near as I can tell, though how it classifies as "premium content" is a bit beyond me). It's about the proposed rebranding of Canada, and is entitled "Tenacious, smelly—and uncool". No, they weren't talking about Canada in the title, they were talking about what a poor choice a wolver-rat would be for a national symbol.

Close your eyes and think of Canada. Perhaps the picture that comes to mind is one of a country of cold winters and civilised prosperity. But Stephen Harper, the country's Conservative prime minister, has another idea. This month he suggested that the national image was best captured by the wolverine, a sort of weasel.

That seems odd. Wolverines have some unpleasant habits. They emit a foul-smelling musk and eat carrion. They are close relatives of skunks and their name translates as “glutton” in French. But Mr Harper was thinking of their reputation for aggression and tenacity in the face of much larger predators. Canada is no mouse beside the American elephant, but a wolverine next to a grizzly bear, he said. “We may be smaller but we're no less fierce about protecting our territory.”

The Economist goes on to remind readers that it's already suggested new symbology for Canada, back in 2003 - a moose wearing shades. So yeah, that's rather cool - a lot better than a nasty smelling sharp-clawed mole-like creature that eats carrion.

[wik] What? Ohio State fan? Moi?