In this article’s title, Thing is capitalized because it is a proper noun—the designation for a Proteus-type creature. The Thing’s, shape-shifting capabilities can be artistic and/or art as an animated painting or animated sculpture. However, if this creature has an inimical personality like The Thing in the movie of the same name, Chicagoans who encountered it and survived would remember its horrific qualities instead of its artistic ones.
The Thing can duplicate living (and probably inanimate) objects. According to Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials (page 98), this creature’s composition consists of protoplasmic cells with a brain in every cell. (Barlowe’s Guide’s source for this information is Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell (aka Don A. Stuart). After briefly studying forms, The Thing can appear as a six-foot tall man or woman (maybe Carl Sandburg dressed in a zoot suit and shopping at Goldblatt’s or Mae West in flapper garb singing at a Chicago speakeasy), but it cannot become the size of the Museum of Science and Industry. (Zoot suits and flapper dresses are artistic garments that were common in Chicago in the 20s, 30s and 40s. When Chicagoans wore these items, they knew they were putting on clothing, art shows.)
It may have been the Thing in the guise of Mrs. O-Leary’s cow when it started the Chicago Fire. Since the Thing has an extraordinary, life span, it may have been around to remember and assume the forms of dodos, pterodactyls and rocs. Other Things, if recently thawed and awakened in these modern times, would probably not know that the previously mentioned bird things are extinct, so if you see dodos in your back yard this Halloween, they are probably Things.
Some other things that had the Thing title are Thing in the Fantastic Four, comic book series; and Thing in The Addams Family, television series. Odo, a shape shifter who was a character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, was technically a Thing, but he did not have an inimical personality. Especially suitable for Halloween as a silly, scary song is Phil Harris’ The Thing.
