It’s a bittersweet evening here at QW HQ.
No Quatchi at the closing ceremonies, but at this point we’re not surprised. Still, as the games wore on, we did see him lurking around the margins of our TV screen, whether on digital scoreboards, or being hurled at figure skaters after their routines, or plastered on the sides of Zambonis, like the ones clearing the ice at today’s historic gold medal hockey game.
The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics have now ended, as has Quatchi’s moment in the sun. Sure, he’ll probably hang around for the Vancouver Winter Paralympics (running March 12-21), though that event will receive far less attention, and Sumi will be the star of that show anyhow. So what happens after that?
Our best guess, sadly, is that Quatchi will fade away, like all the Olympic mascots before him. But we hope not. We hope the character will continue and thrive in some other context. Regardless, this blog will continue as long as interest in Quatchi does, as long as people collect Quatchi memorabilia, create Quatchi arts and crafts, bake Quatchi goods, and so forth. In the meantime, unless some completely amazing, unexpected Quatchi development arises, we’re gonna take at least the next few days off.
We’ve had great fun with this project, and we’re grateful for all the attention it’s received. In the 59 days since we began this blog, on New Year’s Day, we’ve made 113 posts, nearly two per day. During the 17-day run of the games, we’ve averaged over 800 hits per day, including a bizarro 4,192-hit spike on Friday — a very Pete Rose-type number — which we can’t account for…
Big thanks to everyone who’s read our blog, commented on it, linked to it, and sent cool material for us to post. Extra-monster thanks to Meomi, who dreamed up Quatchi and his mascot pals in the first place, for this blog wouldn’t even exist without their delightful creations. We were particularly flattered by the vote of confidence Meomi recently posted on their Facebook page: “A shout out to the lovely folks at Quatchiwatch who’s tireless efforts include all things Quatchi good, bad, and weird! ^__^ Love it.”
For now, we’ll once again link to Meomi’s killer mascots cartoon, the one that made us fall in love with Quatchi to begin with…
Goodnight Quatchi!
— Steve and Eliza
