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america – land of brownies
Author: megan
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fear the turtle
This is the malaclemys terrapin, or diamondback terrapin. They can be found in salt marshes in a lot of places around the states, mainly down the east coast, including Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. They usually live for more than 20 years, grow to about nine inches, and do turtle like things. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, they were so abundant they were often used by landowners as a staple diet for their slaves. Later on they were considered a delicacy, and eaten in terrapin soup.
The terrapin population in Chesapeake Bay has recovered since those days, but now have to deal with things like pollution, increasing numbers of natural predators, being trapped in commercial nets, and becoming roadkill.
The terrapin was recommended as a mascot for the University of Maryland in 1932, in response to a student newspaper calling for suggestions for an “official” leader. Shortly afterwards, the Class of 1933 gave the university a bronze terrapin as their parting gift. The sculpture was revealed in May 1933 – the live terrapin that had been used as a model for the sculpture had a ribbon attached to it, which was in turn attached to the sheet covering the sculpture. As the terrapin crawled away, the sculpture was revealed. This sounds like it would have been like a good idea in theory, but the sort of thing that would have gone terribly wrong in practice. If I was a terrapin faced with a crowd of people, I’m sure I wouldn’t have obligingly walked towards them in order to reveal a statue of myself.
The sculpture, known as Testudo, quite commonly disappeared, and was the subject of all sorts of pranks and mis-happenings, and he ended up being stored away for a couple of years until 1951. Then he was replaced with greater security in front of the campus stadium, until the 1960s, when he was moved to live in front of the new library. He has a very shiny nose as well – rubbing it is supposed to bring good luck.
All of the Maryland sporting teams have been known as the Terrapins (or Terps, for shorter headlines) since then, making an interesting contrast to most other University mascots (bears, bison, tigers, wolves, broncos, bulldogs, cougars, eagles, lions, panthers…). The Diamondback Terrapin was made the State reptile, and official mascot of the University of Maryland in 1994.
The University started up the fear the turtle campaign a couple of years ago – based on the idea that the Uni is a force to be reckoned with in the classroom as well as on the field, and raising money for scholarships (a portion of the proceeds of merchandise sold goes towards terrapin conservation). Hence there are banners all over the Uni with this picture – and I thought Americans didn’t have a sense of humour.
There’s all sorts of merchandise emblazoned with the fear the turtle logo. Personally, I’m hanging out to buy my fear the turtle fan bracelet. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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chinese new year
We went to the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown in DC yesterday. I was thinking it was my first ever parade, but I’ve the feeling I skipped out on a Physics lab with my lab partner back in 3rd year, and went and saw the Australian Olympic team parading through the streets after the Sydney Olympics. There was a lot more jostling on the pavement for this parade, and a lot more noise. Nearly every kid there had a box of this stuff that looked like sawdust, but made a loud exploding noise when they threw a pinch of it at the ground. If I was a chemistry geek I’d probably realise what it was. I was suprised they were allowed to have it actually, it wasn’t very stable stuff, I had my ears set ringing when a guy standing behind me had some go off in his hand (his girlfriend was unimpressed as well).
The parade itself wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, and there was no enormous dragon, although there were lots of smaller ones. The group that got the biggest cheer was the bunch of cheerleaders dancing energetically infront of the marching band.
The cutest dragon of all was this little boy though.
I went hiking in Great Falls Park today. There were frozen waterfalls, and icy puddles, and trees without leaves. Hoards and hoards of trees without leaves. I can understand now why people get so excited about the leaves in autumn (or fall), as it would be pretty spectacular. Just about all Australian natives are evergreens, so our autumn isn’t anything special.
These are the Great Falls of the Potomac. Hmm, apparently many people consider them to be the most spectacular natural landmark in the Washington DC area (according to google). The Potomac is actually the dividing line between Maryland and Virginia – these photos were taken from the Maryland shore. More photos if you click on the link thingo underneath (the later photos are taken further downstream, earlier on in the hike).
Whose idea was it, that keeping the one-cent coin in circulation was a good idea in America. I pondered this as I emptied the little buggers out of my wallet once again. The one-cent coin, or penny… made of copper plated zinc, with a picture of Abraham Lincoln on one side, and the Lincoln memorial on the other. Apparently it’s the most widely used denomination in circulation in the USA.
A variety of surveys throughout the second half of the twentieth century have all shown high public support for the penny (above 70%). A group called Americans for Common Cents established themselves in 1990, and spend their time telling Congress why they shouldn’t get rid of the penny. Apart from the idea of public support, they point to adverse affects for consumers: “Removal of the penny will create the aggravation and confusion of rounding in each cash transaction.” Getting rid of the penny will remove the 0.3 cent profit the treasury collects on each penny made (although conflicting sources indicate this profit may be as little as 0.19 cents). And that good old argument – there’s no reason to change it so why should we.
Meanwhile, the arch-nemeses of the Americans for Common Cents group, the wicked and evil anti-penny organisations fight onwards for the removal of the “copper-coated scourge”. Now don’t get me started on the (10-cent) dime being half the size of the (5-cent) nickel.