Thursday, July 01, 2010

Nerd Word of the Week: Unicorn Pegasus Kitten

Unicorn Pegasus Kitten (n.) - A mythical beast modeled after the chimera that combines the rear legs and wings of a pegasus, the forelegs and head of a giant kitten and the horn of a unicorn. Seriously.

The unicorn pegasus kitten, sometimes referred to as the UPK, was created as a parody of conflated internet memes by artist Jeff Zugale at the request of author-blogger John Scalzi (depicted as an orc in the original UPK painting) and actor-author-blogger Wil Wheaton (depicted as a clown-sweatered orc-hunter in the original UPK painting) as part of a fundraising project to benefit the Lupus Alliance of America. The unicorn pegasus kitten instantly became a meme unto itself, with sci-fi songwriter John Anealio already providing its immortal ballad.

I bring it up because: As of today, the co-inspirator of the unicorn pegasus kitten is President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Already his campaign platform has given way to a reign of terror. And unlike in the painting, there is no clown-sweatered spear-toting meme-rider to save us. Hooray!