The Gavleboken is UP and BLOGGING!!!! 2010 WOOO!

Sorry - I just cannot contain my happiness.

He's back he's back, the goat is baaaaack!!!!

























And - here is his superawesome BLOG!

So far we have learned that...

• His horns and beard are very important to him, and that this year, he will have 16 lights on each horn!!
• He is 44 years old this year.
• Lucia is a tradition celebrated December 13 in Sweden.
• One of the performers who played as he was dedicated was from Ace of Base!
• Check out the webcam (maybe he'll wave at you).

And now the best part - I got an email recently from Sweden with info on how to order my very own baby goat and support the guards who help keep the piros away. Yes, you need to buy one of these:



















and the money will go towards protecting the goat from getting flamed.

Please write to turist "@" gavle.se to get instructions on how to forward money to the tourism board and tell them where to send your baby goat! It costs 230 Swedish crowns.

The Sheep are at it Again!

They have organized themselves into some sort of symposia.... goats. This disturbs me. First, it was the alpacas and their festival. Now this.

I understand, goats, that you are independent. That you like to do your own thing, your own way. That you would never be caught doing something like this:






But organization is not always a bad thing! We need a strong Wisconsin showing - hells, we are American's Dairy Land and it ain't just because of those beefy bovine. Here are some links to get you started. Goats unite!!

Goat Poster

There is a lovely poster I have noticed in a number of libraries this year. Here it is:


























(click to go to the artist's DeviantArt.)

I... don't quite get it. I find it super cool, but until I did some research today I was like, "Is it a goaty Neptune? What's with the orcas tied to his belt? Why is he so huge? And why a goat?"

Well, it's Capricorn - the sea goat. Which in and of itself is a bit of an enigma. No one really knows why it's half goat, half fish (or shark or whatever). Probably dates to Babylonian times. Wikipedia explains how the horns may be the towers of Babylon and that the fish part could come from the Tigris river. It also states the Babylonian god of crafts, mischief and water, Enki, was represented by a goat and a fish.

The poster itself seems to have gone over well, but some bookmarks the artist did have had some odd detractors. In this post it explains the controversy.

The Goat Button

Go push it.

Goats and Cataracts

I don't like the magazine Mental Floss (too over-designed and full of itself), but, always willing to give a second chance, I leafed through it at the library the other day and came across an interesting tidbit of medical / goat lore. Supposedly a doctor noticed a blind goat scratch its eye on a thorn, then, once the eye had healed, the goat was no longer blind.


I don't know the full story behind this - but I did find an interesting Google Book called "Better Eyesight" in which Dr. William H. Bates retells a story of Sinbad explaining pretty much the same goat incident.

More Bock Beer

For my Bday my honey gifted me with an 8-pack of Fighting Billy Bock Beer (yes, the beer comes in an 8 pack - just like "Lazy Mutt." Eight, by the way, just so happens to be my favorite number!).


























Wow, kinda cool scan of the bottle cap. Anyway, I love beer that has a story on the label:

"HELP DISPEL THE CURSE The curse can easily be dispelled by showing a sincere fondness to Billy Bock. It fights only to maintain its dignity. What does "=" sign mean? It explains the relationship between bock and taste. Simply put, Bock = Taste. Chill Billy Bock to 45 degrees (7 C), call over three of your best buddies an help dispel the curse."


The beer is from Minhas brewery in Monroe, WI.

Yuengling (yingling) Brewery, the oldest operating brewery in the US, reintroduced one of their old bocks. You can read about it here. And get a tee shirt here!






























I also found this blog post, which has some nice bock images.