Back in the day, I loved that silly network show Northern Exposure. The humor and the quirky characters were a great escape from the dullitries1 of college chores and work, and the storylines often played out like Alaska was some foreign land, long before Sarah Palin came along.
The kicker for me was always the wandering moose, which acted as the unofficial mascot of the show. At the time, a moose seemed about as American as a camel. (Isn’t a moose just a humpless, antlered camel?) Well, recently it seems the show could have been filmed in Vermont! This past winter had Waterbury looking like a remote village just west of the Yukon. We just had Town Meeting Day not too long ago, which is quite different from anything I’ve seen. But the kicker again is a wandering moose, which has just shown up to claim his mascot position.
Sure, I’ve long since learned that moose live in many of the northern reaches of the US. I was fully aware that I might run across one while out on some remote hike or while driving along the back roads. But I never thought one would show up in Burlington, touring the UVM campus and taking swims on the lakefront.
After a tour of Burlington's waterfront, this young moose ran up Battery Street, into the Old North End. #btvmoose pic.twitter.com/Vvl8PxUPJM
— BurlingtonFreePress (@bfp_news) May 6, 2014
Moose & beansie's bus haha so vermont #btvmoose #mooseontheloose pic.twitter.com/L9nJhLs80L
— lil c ♛ (@c_hubs17) May 7, 2014
The #BTVmoose was photographed in Winooski this morning – thanks to Matt Szafir for the photo! pic.twitter.com/Djy8R2hfNX
— Vermont Edition (@vermontedition) May 6, 2014
Roll the opening credits…