I got tha fever. Butterstick Fever.

This town, as Wonkette will attest, has been seized by the ridiculously cute addition at the National Zoo: Tai Shan.

It's stoopid how adorable he is.

What's funny to me is how absolutely bonkers some folks have gone over this panda. I think we're all wanting to soak up as much time with it as we can, in whatever visceral way we can (PandaCam? Really?) because when he turns two, the 'Stick gets shipped back to China. Wonkette has her frequent Butterstick updates, which are probably fueling the frenzy as much as reporting on it. DCeiver's got his own particular brand of How-Fucking-Cute-Is-He-ism going on, interspersed amongst the exhaustive Lost reviews. But what I'm really enjoying, as reported in the Express today, are the advent of the rival Butterstick blogs. That is, blogs purporting to be written by the 'Stick.

They have a vast polarity difference between them. One, the newcomer, has 'Stick as a warm, meandering soul slowly discovering the little pleasures of life as a panda.

The other portrays Bandit (because "Butterstick" is verboten) as kind of a badass wannabe.

Each has taken notice of the other. It's now kind of in that awkward moment when two dogs you were hoping would walk around and ignore each other actually lock eyes, and it's only a matter of moments before the growling begins and all hell breaks loose.

At least, that's what I'm hoping for.