Mascot Madness

Last night the 2012 London Olympic Games or whatever they're called began. I don't care much about sports but I was curious about the opening ceremony. I mean, how can you top China's thousand-man synchronized drumming? Balls-out Insanity apparently. They had kids singing, Kenneth Branagh reading Shakespeare, angry Celtic drumming, an elaborately choreographed ring forging, The Queen jumping out off a helicopter with James Bond, a 100-foot Voldemort, Mr. Bean, a retrospective of British pop music, fireworks, the whole shebang. But amidst all the crazy, I noticed one glaring absence...

These two are Wenlock and Mandeville, the London Olympic mascots. They didn't make a single appearance last night and I was bummed out by that. It's not like they would have been the strangest thing there. According to their backstory, they are two drips of molten steel from the Olympic Stadium brought to life by... I don't know. Olympic magic or something.

I love Wenlock and Mandeville. They're weirdly adorable. Even their names are adorably British. But I'm in the minority on this. A lot of people seem to find them creepy. It's the big single eye I think. There's just something unsettling about being stared at by a single unblinking eye. It doesn't help that their eyes are supposed to be security cameras (London being the most surveilled city on Earth). Some even say their part of an Illuminati conspiracy.

But I still love them. I'm not even sure why. Maybe it's just because they look like chibi anime versions of Doctor Who monsters. Maybe it's because a silver cyclops is the last thing you'd expect a kid's mascot to be. All I know is that I want to hug them. And I'm not the only one.

By the by, Wenlock's on the right and Mandeville's on the left