Big Norm

A reader tipped me off to the story of Big Norm, supposedly the world's largest known pig at an estimated 1600 pounds. If you are visiting upstate New York you can make a personal visit to see Norm in Hubbardsville. For most of us, though, an on-line visit (here) is better. You can buy shares in Big Norm (to help pay for his upkeep) or pick up a t-shirt.

By the way, the Guinness Book of Records believes that a Poland-China pig called Big Bill which died in 1933 is the largest pig ever, weighing 2552 pounds. In other news, the world record for the highest jump by a pig is 70 cm (27.5 in) and was achieved by Kotetsu, a pot-bellied pig on 22 August 2004 at the Mokumoku Tedsukuri Farm, Mie, Japan. You can find a photo here at the Guinness site.

"Pig Racing is a Lot Like Life"

NPR's Weekend Edition ran a nice end-of-summer piece about pig races at the Montgomery County Fair that you can listen to here. There's a good interview with Cody and Gabrielle Boger, proprietors of the Ham Bone Express pig races. I find it interesting that in all the pig races I've heard of the "prizes" the pigs are racing for are invariably oreo cookies. Cody Boger notes that they use two-month-old Yorkshires that they return to the farmer at the end of the season.

Thanks to Lisa for tipping me off about this story.
Photo by Laura Krantz, NPR.

Nippon Ham Fighters

As the start of baseball season is approaching, I figured it was time to find out something about the Nippon Ham Fighters, a Japanese professional baseball team. Unlike many Americans, I was at least aware that the team is the Fighters, not Ham Fighters, although that could be cool. The team is owned by Nippon Meat Packers, Inc. and now plays in Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido, having moved from Tokyo for the 2004 season. Nippon Ham took over the team in 1973 and named the team "Fighters" after a public contest (they had been the "Flyers"). The current Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (official website here) are managed by American Trey Hillman. Their mascot is a bear. Unfortunately, they never had a mascot or logo that had anything to do with pigs or pork, although one article I found on the team claimed that the old mascot "Flighty" was a bright pink pterodactyl, whose head resembled a giant leg of ham. Hmm. There's an interesting 2003 NYT article about the re-branding of the team here that charts the history of their new logo (above).