TRENTON, N.J. Fritzi is a 15-foot blow-up rat who spends Monday through Friday standing outside shopping malls and corporate offices targeted by community activists and unions, just barely scraping by. “It’s tough work,” he says as a passing GMC Truck splashes cold water on him as it drives by at high speed, “but today–somehow I feel there’s hope for a better future.”
Free at last!
Fritzi is referring to the unanimous decision handed down by the New Jersey Supreme Court holding that 10-foot inflatable rats have free speech rights, the first of its kind in the nation. “I’d tell my grandchildren about this day,” he says as what appears to be a tear rolls down his cheeck, “except I can’t reproduce.”
The case has given hope to other species of blow-up animals, such as Kangaroo Dundee, an inflatable marsupial who specializes in birthday parties. “The blow-up rats have knocked down the door,” he says with obvious excitement. “It’s up to us to walk through it.”
Barney: Still held down by oppressive mesh nets.
But just as the civil rights of various groups have advanced at different paces depending upon public perception, some say it will be a long time before giant blow-ups of Barney the Purple Dinosaur will be accepted on an equal basis with other inflatable species. “Barney–I don’t know about him,” says Earl Suggins, Jr., who runs a lunch counter that served its first inflatable rat today at lunch, shortly after the New Jersey decision was handed down. “What he does makes me sick to my stomach.”
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