First you need to know what the Woofus is. It’s a mythological creature created in 1936 for the Texas Centennial Exposition. It stands guard outside the Swine Building at the Fair Park. Read more about the Woofus here. It is the official position of D Magazine that the Woofus ought to be elevated to its rightful role as the mascot of Dallas (with a hat tip to Mark Lamster). The Pegasus, after all, was a corporate logo. Before that, it was a Greek thing. The Woofus is a hometown deal, uniquely Dallas. So that’s the Woofus.
Now then. On July 9, after a giant LED cat in Tokyo got some pub, the folks at the Brantfield Public Library, in Ontario, made a joke on Twitter about how they couldn’t afford a giant LED cat, which led to the hashtag #GiantAnimalsOnLibraries. The librarians out in Fort Worth put a giant panther on their library and challenged Dallas to get with it. At which point, I demanded that Dallas counter with “some serious Woofus action.”
And, lo, the librarians (or their tech-savvy lackeys) produced the image you see above, tweeting it here. This is some very good work. Many of the giant animals on libraries are fun because the photoshop work is lousy. In this case, though, we clearly have some folks who know what they’re doing. Notice how the lighting and shadows are consistent on the Woofus and the building. Kudos.
