Year of the Slug
Eugene’s new SLUG queen Daniel Borson
talks about his agenda BY BEN STONE
D
aniel Borson has known that Bulbus Slimebledore
was the stuff of queens since 2009. He was
taken by the idea of a slug wizard, but allowed
it to take backseat to some other magnetic
personalities he’s pulled out for SLUG (Society
for the Legitimization of the Ubiquitous Gastropod)
queen competitions over the years.
In 2008, Borson competed in the SLUG queen
coronation as Ambassador Mucous Mulloscadia —
a half-man, half-woman hybrid representing slugs’
hermaphroditic nature. In 2009, he killed as Slimus
O’Mulloskin, a singing leprechaun. In 2010, he played
Little Orphan Sluggie, based loosely on the character
from the musical Annie. And after a suspenseful two-
year hiatus, Borson returned to the contest in 2013 in the
robes of Slimebledore, shark-eyed and intent on winning.
But with stiff competition from Queen Professor Doctor
Mildred Slugwak Dresselhaus, Borson came up short
once more.
“I knew that I had to run again,” Borson says. “Because
I knew that I was going to be queen some day.”
And lo, Bulbus Slimebledore was crowned on Aug. 8,
and is now preparing for a year as Eugene’s “unofficial
goodwill ambassador.” Borson sat down with EW to talk
about the future of our water supply, the true meaning of
bribery, the Eugene Celebration and those boots.
What do slugs mean to you?
To me, the slug represents the ecosystem of our little
area of the southern Willamette Valley. Given slugs’ love
of moisture and wetness and the very hot, dry summer
that we’re having this year, that’s going to be challenging
for slugs. Slugs feed birds, and birds are part of the
ecosystem — to me [they’re] representative of the whole
web of nature that is really in a very precarious balance.
When the history books are written, what would you
like them to say about your rain?
Given that my character is a parody of Professor
Dumbledore and that Dumbledore is headmaster of
a school, I also wanted to be about education, and
specifically environmental education. Nearby Nature
is one of my key charities — they do wonderful work
in environmental education, summer camps, programs
throughout the year for kids of all ages.
Are there any environmental issues specific to
Eugene that you’d be meaning to look into in regards
to environmental education?
I’d say probably the biggest ones are with respect to
water and energy and sustainability. It doesn’t rain as
much here as we really like to think it does. As much as
we like to think we have a lot of water, we’re not immune
to drought situations. Here in Eugene we have a precious
resource with the Eugene Water and Electric Board (I
happen to work for them). The McKenzie River water
source to me is a very precious resource. Not only is it
BULBUS SLIMEBLEDORE
PUTS A SPELL ON
DOWNTOWN EUGENE
PHOTO BY ATHENA DELENE • ATHENADELENE.SQUARESPACE.COM
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