SEATTLE - The popular piggy bank at Seattle's Pike Place Market took one on the snout this morning. A taxi driver hit the gas when he was rear-ended nearby early Saturday and plowed into Rachel the Pig ... Even taxi drivers can hit the wrong pedal. Rest of story and pictures at: Taxi crashes into Pike Place Market pig statue.
That Prius held up pretty well for getting rear ended and slamming into a 550 pound pig! What a great car!:rockon:
All in all, not a bad story for a slow news day on local news. It is interesting that the reporter didn't dwell on the fact that the taxi was a Prius... in fact didn't even mention that it was a Prius. I suppose that Prii are so common in Seattle that it's just a ho-hummer, as it were. Probably a lot of Prius taxis as well. As an out-of-towner, but once upon-a-time Seattelite, I would like to know more about the pig and the ultimate use of the moneys collected: * What agency sponsors the pig? * What services are supported? * Other than the obvious association with a piggy-bank, why a pig, especially immediately adjacent to the fish market? Ah, here it is: The Pike Place Market's unofficial mascot, Rachel, a bronze cast piggy bank that weighs 550 pounds (250 kg), has been located since 1986 at the corner of Pike Place under the "Public Market Center" sign. Rachel was designed by local artist Georgia Gerber and modeled after a pig (also named Rachel) that lived on Whidbey Island and was the 1977 Island County prize-winner. Rachel receives roughly US$6,000–$9,000 annually in just about every type of world currency, which is collected by the Market Foundation to fund the Market's social services. Rachel provided the theme for the Pigs on Parade fundraiser that was first held in 2001 and was one of several events in various cities modeled on a similar 1998 event in Zurich; the Zurich event centered on cows and was the first of what have come to be known as CowParades. A similar Pigs On Parade fundraiser was held in 2007 on the occasion of the Market centennial, which happened to coincide with the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Pig. [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_Place_Market[/ame] Soo -wee, that's some pig!
None of the reports I saw, on TV or online, mentioned make or model. I had to add it for this audience. That was generally true last year too, during the national hysteria about runaway Toyotas. News stories of the numerous local crashes involving 'pedal misapplication' normally did not mention make or model. And when some did, most were not Toyotas.
