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I like to think of myself as a happenin, in-the-know kind of guy. After suffering consistent, stark slaps of reality time and time again (things like finding out that
narwhals are real and what Go-Go music is), you’d think that I would have long ago abandoned such a notion. It happened again this very morning.

Fellow blogger Allison Loudermilk told me that Furry Weekend Atlanta 2009 is happening this weekend at the Hilton on Courtland St. There appears to be a subculture of which I was wholly unaware called fursuiters (or “furries,” as Loudermilk put it).

Furries are essentially just people who like to dress up in animal costumes, usually of a cartoonish nature. Being on the outside looking in, I realize that the extent of my exposure to fursuiters is those who do it for pay, e.g., the Banana Splits.

Fursuiting, it turns out, is about fun more than anything else (though I’m quite sure that there’s plenty more to it of which I’m unaware). And what’s more fun that a bowling tournament with people who like to dress up as Klingons? It’s true. It happened. By God, it happened:

I’m thinking of going to Furry Weekend 2009. I’m pretty sure I can’t come up with a decent costume on this short notice, so I may just take my shirt off and walk around. If you see hairy, shirtless Josh walking around the Atlanta Hilton this weekend, I’m meant to be a chipmunk, okay?

More on HowStuffWorks.com:

Costumes 101
How Narwhals Work
Sept. 9: Wonderful Weirdos Day