Madisonians take their badger very seriously—Bucky Badger, that is. I made the mistake on my first trip out to visit Tom of calling him Bucky Beaver in public. Tom immediately sushed me—“BADGER” he hissed like one in my ear, glancing around to see if I’d made a spectacle of myself by letting anyone else hear me.

Before moving to Madison, I dressed up like a cheesehead UW fan for Halloween. Jenny Hughes did an amazing art job of Bucky, with his snotty little sneer, on my face (see below). Since moving to Madison, we’ve had two Bucky sightings—one at a basketball game a few weeks ago and the other at the hockey game on Saturday. On a side note, that was our first-ever live hockey game, and probably the first hockey game either of us had really watched. We learned there are three periods to a hockey game; and, since we sat in the very front row, we learned hockey players ram the hell out of each other now and then—VERY exciting. We also learned that when it’s a tie-game at the end, it’s sudden death. Bummer for our UW Big Red but a good deal for Tom’s sort-of Alma Mater, Northern Michigan.

Enjoy a few pics of Bucky’s hijinx.