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Did you know a radical

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student group once took over
Bascom Hill at UW Madison?

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And they did it with this.

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Bascom Hill
sits in the heart of campus,

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right in front of Bascom

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Hall, home to the university's
top administrators.

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In 1979, Leon Varjian and Jim
Mallon were members of the Pail

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and Shovel Party,

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a student political group
that thought student government

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was taking itself
way too seriously.

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So their solution?

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Make it ridiculous.

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During the 1979 student
election, the Pail and Shovel

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Party won control of UW
Madison's student government,

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giving them access
to student funds

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and a very large platform
for their antics.

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Then, on September 4th,
they put those funds to work.

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They covered Bascom
Hill with 1008

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plastic pink flamingos.

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Why flamingos?

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They were cheap, bright pink,
and impossible to ignore.

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Basically the perfect prop
for a political prank.

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And it worked.

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Then, in 2009,
Madison, Wisconsin

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officially named the plastic
pink flamingo its city bird.

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The stunt became so popular
that the flamingos eventually

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became an annual tradition

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through the Fill
the Hill fundraiser.