As you may know, we Viridians have our own mascot, that cuddly decay micro-organism, "Big Mike."

Big Mike is in flourishing shape right now, never better. He should be seeing a lot of use soon. But someday, maybe sooner than we know, the Viridian Movement will cease to be. We will then require our mascot to make it crystal-clear that our Movement is no longer "moving."

As a clean, fully recyclable ideology, we Viridians do this voluntarily. It is our sworn intent to come apart gracefully at the end of our lifespan, to auto- disassemble, and to offering our spare parts to other future activists.

Thus, the official mascot of Viridian Dissolution: "Dead Mike."

We need the prettiest, most picturesque, most gracefully defunct Dead version of Big Mike you can create. Put the image on a website, as usual, and I will distribute the address to the list.

We'll keep Mike's future skull at hand, you see, as a prescient memento mori; and some day, "Dead Mike" will come fully into his own. Big Mike will be dead much, much longer than Big Mike was ever alive; but perhaps, if Mike was truly useful, some of his/its vacuoles and chromosome loops will still be of use to others.

The winner of the Dead Mike Contest receives a copy of "Beautiful Death: Art of the Cemetery" by David Robinson, with text by Dean Koontz. (Penguin Studio books, 1996).

This design contest ends February 15, 02000. Good luck!

The Winner