Whether Atlantans realized it or not, Whatizit/Izzy was actually a most appropriate symbol for their city. Critics had often claimed that boosters talked about Atlanta as if it was a person. Much like the smiling slug, Atlanta was a striving, self-absorbed adolescent trying to find a place among more mature and established peers ... possessed by a sense of mission and shameless hucksterism, as well as a propensity to turn seeming disasters, whether they be devastation in war or embarrassment before the world, into fame and profit.