New Sock Monkey in Town

The sock monkey takes many forms. Many strange forms that seem to be distant cousins of the original folk art.

I bring this up because a sock monkey appeared in Lilly's stocking this year. In fact, it practically filled the thing up. Somehow I realized that she wanted one -- one or another of her friends has one -- when I saw a display of them at a major drug store chain in the days before Christmas. Unlike those examples above, hers hews a little closer to the conventional form, at least as far as I understand the sock monkey archetype.

But my understanding is limited. Wasn't one of the 1,000 faces of the hero a sock monkey? I can't remember. Lilly's specimen, according to the label, is "All new materials, surface washable, 100% polyester fiber." And of course, Made in China. It has the distinctive red mouth that sock monkeys have, but more interestingly there's a distinctive red anus pretty much where you'd expect it to be, though the tail is in a curious position that seems to sprout from the monkey's lower opening.