Otherwise known as the Ligle…
When our judge requested this beast, I thought to myself, there’s no way we haven’t done a Griffin yet… But after a quick check of the archives and my cardboard box of really old ones that haven’t made it online yet, I can confirm that the closest we’ve even come was the Cockatrice. So here we go!
The Griffin has long been the symbol of death defying bravery in battle. Said to be the offspring of a kind of hard to imagine coupling of the king of beasts with the king of birds, The Griffin boasts the head, wings and talons of an eagle and the body, back legs and tail of a lion, and as beasts go is considered to be pretty damn powerful. And much like Dragons, Griffins are said to hoard treasures of all sorts and defend them with an unmatched ferocity.
And here’s a few extra fun facts to add to the mix
- There is evidence placing Griffins in the lore of ancient Egypt and Persia as far back as 3300 BC
- Griffin claws were considered medicinal and their feathers could restore sight to the blind
- Goblets fashioned from griffin claws and griffin eggs were highly prized in medieval European courts
- Griffins mated for life, if their mate died, they would not find pleasure in another
- Theories abound that the Griffin lore began with a single exposed Protoceratops skeleton in the Gobi Desert
- Baby Eagles are really cute and old cats can be really ugly
- The Griffin was the mascot at our judges school
Our Judge this week is the famed Mr Fuzzy Gerdes! The first time I met Fuzzy, in like 5 minutes time he had fixed my server access, shown me how to use terminal (which i promptly forgot), and explained to me how he had spent the weekend creating and filming a series of zombie shorts around the city… And then he was gone but for some reason I felt considerably better about the world. He just one of those guys, great spirited, funny and silly smart. He usually has more balls in the air than… well let’s just say he often has a lot of balls in the air… Go to his main site fuzzyco.com to learn more about his improv/comedy, filmaking, racing exploits, societal musings or just to laugh and look at pictures of butts. He’s currently plugging chicagoflagtattoos.com and I know at least a few of you have ’em so you know, go there too! He’s been a consistent contributor to us here for almost a year now, so make him laugh and make him proud… or ashamed that works too ; )
