Plastic pink flamingo voted Madison’s city bird
by Broderick Perkins
examiner.com of Tampa Bay
September 3, 2009
Wisconsin’s capital city alders, inspired by what’s become a historic college prank, have named the pink flamingo the city’s official bird.
Not the real feathered variety indigenous to the wilds of Africa, South America, the Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands.
The plastic pink version found on lawns — good, bad and ugly — throughout America.
Madison City Council voted 15-4 this week to give a lawn decoration perhaps the first such distinction, much to the chagrin of some residents and dissenting alders.
The questionable honor was bestowed upon the kitschy ornament because of a 1979 prank by leaders of the University of Wisconsin student government’s Pail and Shovel Party. Continue reading “Madison Wisconsin’s New City Bird”