All over the web: N.C. first-graders spin for a new state symbol

It's not very often that we get to talk about a potential new state symbol. Heck, the last time we addressed it was about a decade ago. (That effort apparently didn't result in the bullfrog being named the state amphibian. But we did gain a state frog a few years ago.) 

But some first-graders in the AVL know that we have been missing out. Students in Miss Patti Evans' class at Dickinson Elementary would like a creepy crawly to be designated that official state spider.

In groups of two, the students studied a dozen of the state’s most common spiders including the trapdoor spider, which hides underground to wait for prey. They also studied the jumping spider and the wolf spider.

The students made posters and compiled facts about each spider. They then voted on their favorites.

The day of the crucial classroom vote, students stood up and talked about their spiders, trying to win over classmates. In the end, the golden silk spider came out on top.

Among the rationale: the spider's bites aren't poisonous, AND they eat mosquitoes. Of course, aren't mosquitoes the state bird? (I keed, I keed.)

Best of luck to the students!

(Apologies for the headline. That was the best I could do with spider puns on a Monday.)

The shad boat: The 'pick-up truck' of watercraft

The latest issue of Coastwatch*, the N.C. Sea Grant program's beautiful publication, has a wonderful piece on some of North Carolina's more "coastal" state symbols, such as the state shell (Scotch bonnet -- pronounced "bonn-ay") and the state fish (red drum).

Sure, it's interesting enough to have an official state shell or state fish, but I've always been intrigued that North Carolina can boast an official state boat. I knew little about the shad boat before reading this article; it now makes perfect sense why it's the state boat.

"Despite its graceful appearance, the shad boat, commonly referred to as the 'pickup truck' of watercraft, navigated our not-so-tranquil sounds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries," writes Coastwatch.

Tom Harrison with Go Wild in Washington County has more about the history of the boat:

The Albemarle Sound, being an expansive but relatively shallow body of water, has a reputation for being extremely rough in high winds. Therefore in the days of sail, traditional small sailing craft were generally not well-suited for weather conditions in the Albemarle Sound. This led to the development and evolution of what became known as the Albemarle Sound Shad Boat.

This shallow draft work boat is unique because it is the only known America sailboat design that had a combination of a spritsail, jib, and a topsail! (A sprit is a pole or spar extended diagonally upward from a mast to the topmost corner of a fore-and-aft sail, serving to extend the sail. A spritsail doesn’t usually have a traditional boom along the bottom of the sail.) The topsail was added to provide additional working canvas high in the air so the boats could work close to forested shores that would becalm the lower spritsail or jib.

The Albemarle Sound Shad Boat is a durable round-bottomed boat with a heart-shaped transom. It was developed after the Civil War and was also known as a “seine boat”. It had a straight bow that was sharply raked, (a boating term meaning, inclined from vertical). Typically, the Albemarle Sound Shad Boat was 18’-33’ in length and was constructed with native Atlantic White Cedar, locally known as Juniper. In boat shops this light-weight naturally rot resistant wood was often called “Southern Cedar”.

The hull was carvel planked, meaning the board planking ran longitudinal and was attached to the frame with nails or screws. The advantage of this traditional construction method was that if a board began to rot or was damaged, it could easily be removed and replaced without ripping the boat apart. The hull was un-decked except for washboards along the gunwales and was most often painted white. It was ballasted with 15-30 sandbags, depending on the size of the boat. The sandbag covers were made of sailcloth and the sandbags were shifted from the center to the windward side during a blow.

According to Coastwatch, original shad boats are still displayed at several locations in North Carolina, including the Roanoke Island Festival Park, the Currituck Heritage Park Museum in Corolla, the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City and the Port O'Plymouth Maritime Museum.

As a (very) amateur sailor, it seems like these boats would be easy on which to learn. Is this true, or am I just WAY off base?

*If you're a fan of the coast, seafood, sea life, etc., and you're not reading Coastwatch, you are really missing out.

New exhibit honors the official state dawg

Wanna learn about the official dog of North Carolina? Let's go to the AP:

The North Carolina Museum of History is showing an exhibit dedicated to the Plott hound, the only dog breed known to have originated in the state and the state dog.The small exhibit is titled "Our State Dog: North Carolina's Plott Hound" and is on display through Sept. 30. The traveling exhibit comes to the museum from Western Carolina University.

The exhibit describes the Plott hound's specific roles in a bear hunt, boar hunt and raccoon hunt. It also highlights five significant breeders of Plott hounds.

The breed originated in Haywood County in the 1800s when the Plott family bred native German dogs to become a distinct breed of animals that would hunt game and protect livestock from predators.

And the official state sport is ...?

... if you guess basketball, then you'd be wrong. But if you guessed NASCAR, well, ding ding.

Gov. Bev Perdue is waving the green flag to make stock car racing North Carolina's official sport, says the AP.

Perdue planned to visit Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday and sign a bill that makes official the state's close and longstanding connection with the popular pastime.

Elementary school students urged legislators to place stock car racing on the list of state superlatives — the state bird is already the cardinal, the turtle is the state reptile and the sweet potato the official vegetable. ...

The bill notes that North Carolina's motorsports industry creates more than 20,000 jobs in the state and is home to racing greats such as Richard Petty and Junior Johnson.

Thoughts? Is this appropriate and spot-on? Does it enhance a stereotype? Does it really matter at all?

Introducing your Official State Horse

From the News & Observer:

Buffeted by hurricanes and harassed by centuries of sand fleas, the humble colonial Spanish mustang has been enshrined as North Carolina's official horse.

The state House voted 116-0 Wednesday to embrace the descendents of steeds said to have been marooned on the Outer Banks by 16th century conquistadors. The Senate approved the bill last week, and Gov. Bev Perdue is expected to sign the measure into law.

The measure was herded through the legislature by one of its most powerful members, Senate leader Marc Basnight.

"They are part of our heritage," said Basnight, a Manteo Democrat whose coastal district includes islands where the horses roam wild. "They are a small horse in stature. They are quick. They are relatively tame, when not in season." ...

State fish gets its time in the spotlight

The Wilmington Star-News' Amy Hotz reports that the North Carolina state fish is the star of a new movie, "Redfish Can't Jump," which will have its public premiere on Jan. 21 in Wilmington.

"You might call it a red drum, spot tail, puppy drum or blue tail, but hey, a fish by any other name . . . . still smells like a fish, I guess," says Hotz.

The movie was three years in the making and "not only shows some beautiful flyfishing footage, but it also investigates why the fish is popular, why it’s important to the ecosystem and why it deserves to be saved from from overfishing (intentional and unintentional) by being declared a gamefish.

According to the “Redfish” Web site, the fish is regulated as a “bycatch” fishery by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries and its annual quota of 250,000 pounds is regularly exceeded by tens of thousands of pounds each year. Gill nets also put pressure on the population.

“Redfish Can’t Jump” was created by a team of locals: Capt. Seth Vernon, Luke Pearson, Josh Eddings, Wes Aiken and Mark McGarity.

By the way, if you’re even remotely interested in flyfishing, you’ve got to see this film.

(Image from Fish4Fun.com)

A state sport? State neckwear?

The subject of state symbols is a popular one here at the Society. North Carolina has some good ones (see the link to the state symbols on the right side of this blog):

-Reptile: Eastern Box Turtle
-Shell: Scotch Bonnet
-Tartan: Carolina Tartan
-and many more.

And seemingly every year there are discussions about adding to that illustrious list. A state amphibian? Maybe.

But what about a state sport? In Maryland it is apparently jousting. Yes, you read that right. Jousting. What would North Carolina's state sport be? Racing? Basketball? Golf? Fishing?

And the good folks in Arizona can claim the bolo tie as the official state neckwear. What would ours be? I'd vote for a bowtie.

Oh, and Washington state can claim the Triceratops as the state dinosaur. Maybe the "Terror of the South," the Acrocanthosaurus could be ours?

Any other state symbols you'd like to see North Carolina adopt?

(Bolo tie from Wikipedia; Acro image from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences website)

An official state horse?

North Carolina can boast a state reptile, gem, boat, dog, insect, etc. But up until now, there's been (as far as I can tell) very little clamor for a state horse. (After all, our northern neighbors in Virginia and Kentucky seem to hog the equestrian limelight.)

Now some students in Currituck County want to change that by campaigning for the Outer Banks mustang -- the banker -- to be the official state horse [says the Daily Advance].

Fourth-graders in the Currituck County Schools have started a letter-writing campaign to save the bankers — not the Wall Street kind, the equine kind.

Students have already written more than 400 letters to state lawmakers, asking them to make “banker ponies” — as the wild horses of Corolla are sometimes known — North Carolina’s official state horse.

“The marvelous Colonial Spanish Mustang is the perfect fit for North Carolina’s state horse,” writes student Lauren Cutler, in one of the letters. “So if the Spanish Colonial Mustang was our horse, maybe it won’t be endangered anymore.”

The horses, about 100 of whom roam the northern Outer Banks, are believed to be the descendants of the Colonial Spanish mustangs brought to the New World by Spanish explorers nearly 500 years ago. They’re called “bankers” because they live on the Outer Banks and ponies because of their small size — 14 to 15 hands, or about five feet from ground to shoulder.

Advocates for the horses worry about their future, particularly as the Outer Banks becomes more developed and their contact with humans increases. ...

School officials hit on the idea of making the wild herd North Carolina’s official state horse the subject of fourth-graders’ writing assessment this year. Students have to complete the writing assignment in order to pass their grade. ...

To prepare students for the writing assignment, each fourth-grader in the county schools learned about the horses’ history, how they came to the Outer Banks and how the breed has dwindled from human interaction, Jensen said. They also got to meet one of the horses — a tame 3-year-old named Uno who was rehabilitated after being injured, and now lives on a farm in Jarvisburg. ...

According to Netstate.com, 11 states have horses listed as a state animal or honorary equine, but only seven have an official state horse. North Carolina isn’t among them.

Organizers hope the letter-writing project creates more awareness about the wild horses and their place in the history of the Outer Banks, Jensen said.

“People don’t understand or realize about the history of these horses and how important it is to protect the breed,” she said.

Good luck to the students. I hope they are successful.

The original USS North Carolina?

The above is a shot of the gangway gate to the USS North Carolina (1836), 19th century warship (and on display at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh). The gangway features a black walnut engraving of the state seal "surrounded by tobacco, cotton, corn, oak leaves and pine needles with a sun rising over an American flag, eagle, and shield."

(Click to enlarge the closeup photo to really get a feel for the intricate carving work.)

Below is a artist's depiction of the "old" USS North Carolina, not the one in Wilmington.

Quick hits: Hurricane names, 49er gridiron, EC in photos and longleaf pine art?

Hurricane names released
My "grandparents" could cause havoc this year. After all, two of the latest round of hurricane names include a "Bill" and an "Ida."

Those wacky weather people. They've also included a "Joaquin" and a "Peter" to be followed by "Rose."

Click here for the full list.


UNCC remains on track for football
"A tough economy and some disappointment in the number of prospective buyers who have followed through with a commitment to buy football seat licenses is not slowing the Charlotte 49ers' efforts to start a football program in time for the 2013 season," says the Charlotte Observer.

"Although circumstances have changed since September, when the school's board of trustees first approved moving ahead on football, athletics director Judy Rose said Tuesday that the 49ers remain on track for a program that would begin in a temporary on-campus stadium and eventually move to a new, on-campus facility.

"Any of Charlotte's football goals are contingent on the selling of at least 5,000 FSLs. As of Tuesday, just over 1,700 had been purchased. ..."

Old photo collection preserves Elizabeth City's history
"For 84 years, Cecil Richardson Jr. has lived in the area and amassed a local photo and newspaper clipping collection that fills more than 75 three-ring binders.

"Some of the photos he’s taken himself, including his shots of the night the wooden blimp hangar burned in Weeksville in the 1990s," says the Daily Advance. "Others he has collected from various residents and labeled with the address or names of those pictured. He knows most of the people in the photographs and can give background stories to places that recent Elizabeth City residents don’t even know existed.

"Cindy Williams, an owner of MMT Printers, wants to help Richardson preserve this knowledge and is collaborating with Richardson to make a photo book that would be available for sale. ..."



Craftswoman makes art from longleaf pine needles
"What can you do with pine straw? Well, there's mulch. And then there's ... mulch.

"Melanie Walter has another use: She makes baskets out of pine needles," says the Star-News.

"She has baskets on the display at the Asheville Art Museum. Her baskets won a third-place ribbon at the Orange Street ArtsFest on May 23. And she has received an invitation to show her work at the prestigious Ann Arbor Street Art Fair in Michigan.

"Most of her sales come through Port City Pottery & Fine Crafts, a crafts cooperative with a store in the Cotton Exchange. Her baskets are also available at the Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash and at the Cameron Art Museum. ..."

UPDATE: Old North State motto lost in translation?

Last week or so I posted this query about an old N.C. state seal.

Came across an old book, American Symbols: The Seals and Flags of the Fifty States by M. B. Schnapper, which includes an interesting (and up until now unknown-to-me) history about North Carolina's state seal.

One of Nostre Caroline's early seals (around 1663) includes the phrase "Que Sera Tamen Respexit." This obviously predates the motto of "Esse Quam Videri" (To Be Rather Than To Seem), which was authorized in the 1890s.

The question, for you Latin experts out there, is what does that old motto actually mean?I went to an expert (an Internet translation site) which spit this out:"And sera nothwithstanding regard."

Somehow, I don't think this is what King Charles II had in mind.Obviously, "que sera" means " what will be will be." But what about the rest of it. For the record, Schnapper never divulges it either.

No one ever came forth to answer this question, so I went to an expert.

"The line comes from Virgil, Eclog 1, line 27: 'Libertas, quae sera tamen respexit inertem . . .'" replied Zola Packman, an assistant language professor at N.C. State University and a Latin expert.

Packman states that "Que Sera Tamen Respexit" "roughly" translates to "Liberty, which, (though) late (in life), looked upon (me), inactive (as I was)."

"The speaker is an ex-slave, so the liberty spoken of was meant to be that of a free, ie non-slave, man," Packman responded in an email. "I suppose that when used as a motto it must be understood to refer to a population, or an area, and that the freedom is meant to be understood as freedom from foreign occupation."

Thanks for the feedback! And how cool is it that there is a professor named "Packman" at NCSU?

Old North Carolina motto lost in translation?

Came across an old book, American Symbols: The Seals and Flags of the Fifty States by M. B. Schnapper, which includes an interesting (and up until now unknown-to-me) history about North Carolina's state seal.

One of Nostre Caroline's early seals (around 1663) includes the phrase "Que Sera Tamen Respexit." This obviously predates the motto of "Esse Quam Videri" (To Be Rather Than To Seem), which was authorized in the 1890s.

The question, for you Latin experts out there, is what does that old motto actually mean?

I went to an expert (an Internet translation site) which spit this out:

"And sera nothwithstanding regard."

Somehow, I don't think this is what King Charles II had in mind.

Obviously, "que sera" means " what will be will be." But what about the rest of it. For the record, Schnapper never divulges it either.

Mr. Teach's cannon?

Admittedly, it looks "more like a concrete ditch pipe than a cannon," but the 2,500-pound relic of the sea near Beaufort Inlet may be a cannon from Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge.

"This is really special to us because it has a lot of things attached to it," Mark Wilde-Ramsing, director of the state's Queen Anne's Revenge project, told the News & Observer.

He said researchers will carefully remove a pewter plate, wood and other items for further study. The cast-iron cannon, which was retrieved from the water Monday, will soon go into treatment process to halt corrosion. After three to five years, the cannon will be black and shiny and ready for display.

Researchers put the encrusted cannon on display Wednesday at the N.C. Maritime Museum expansion site on Gallants Channel. ...

The shipwreck site was located in November 1996 by Intersal, Inc., a private company. State archaeologists say research over 11 years supports the wreck's identity as the Queen Anne's Revenge. The ship ran aground in June 1718. About 2,000 relics have been recovered from the site just off Atlantic Beach.

N.C. symbol update: 'Here be suggestions'

We got some great responses in our quest to find a viable symbol for North Carolina. Among the suggestions:

-The shape of the state

-A cardinal

-A dogwood

-A Long Leaf Pine

-And, of course, a pig (you know, for barbecue).

But the one that is perhaps most intriguing was offered by David: Edward Teach's flag (above)

Teach, as most people know, was Blackbeard the Pirate, who ruled the waters of the Eastern coastline in the early 1700s. (Read more about Blackbeard here.)

An interesting symbol for the entire state, perhaps. But there is plenty of N.C.-related aspects to Teach:

-He lived in Bath, the state's oldest town.

-He hid out along the coves of the Carolina coast.

-He was given free reign by then-Governor Charles Eden.

-He was finally killed near Ocracoke.

One interesting aspect of Teach that I had never known until researching him: it's never been proven that he actually killed anyone. In fact, he "got by" with fear alone. A big part of that fear could've been his flag, which was, according to this site, "one of the more unusual flags flown by the pirates. His flag had a skeleton holding an hour glass in one hand to signify that your time was running out. A dagger in the other hand and the heart with three drops of blood signified that blood would be drawn if you did not surrender. Horns and cloven feet on the skeleton signified that he was in league with the devil."

Some other "neat" things about our good friend Mr. Teach: He thwarted the blockade of Charleston and was hunted by the Governor of Virginia. He may have been born in England, but he sounds like a rapscallion North Carolinian to me.

Plus, that flag would no doubt look cool on shirts, hats and belt buckles.

'When I think of N.C., I think of ...'

With all due respect to my Sandlapper friends, I must concede one thing: As a North Carolinian, I almost never find myself feeling jealous of South Carolina -- save for the fact that Charleston is perhaps my favorite U.S. city and, I have to admit, I really do like Hootie & the Blowfish. (And, of course, our neighbors to the south are among the nicest anywhere. So there.)

Having said that, I do have to give credit where credit is due. And in this instance, I'm jealous of the fact that South Carolina has produced one of the most iconic symbols anywhere in the world. I'm talking, naturally, about the S.C. flag. And more importantly, I'm referring to the palmetto tree and crescent that adorns the flag.

Simply put, it's a very cool symbol. You see it everywhere, even here in the Old North State. I imagine it's for three reasons that it's so popular: 1) People really love South Carolina; 2) It's just a really neat, unique symbol; and 3) it's become a defacto symbol of the South (not unlike the Bonnie Blue). I may be wrong about that last one, but that's the feeling I get, at least.

So, I'm jealous. Jealous that South Carolina has such a cool symbol. It looks good on hats, shirts, belts, stickers, etc. Our grand state doesn't quite have anything like that.

But could it?

S.C.'s symbol has reached a status not unlike "I (HEART) NY" or the slogan, "What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas." I'm not saying that N.C. can approach those. But it's worth a discussion.

Here are some potential options:
-The flag: North Carolina's flag is not as unique as S.C.'s or even Maryland's, but it's a ready-made symbol. One proposal would be to use the the star with the N on the left and the C on the right, as opposed to the whole flag. But stars as symbols are kinda overdone. (Go Cowboys!)

(By the way, did you know there was an official salute to the state flag? It's kinda new: "I salute the flag of North Carolina and pledge to the Old North State love, loyalty, and faith.")

-State symbols: Nothing really stands out here, save for the Cardinal (boring, in my opinion) or the Pine tree. But S.C. has the tree symbol monopoly.

Folks could use the Carolina Tartan more -- but that's available, I believe, to both Carolinas.

I think Ohio would be even more upset if we tauted the whole "First in Flight" that much more.

Any other state symbol ideas? The Venus Fly Trap? The Plott Hound? The Emerald? All cool things, but, again, I think they would be hard to translate to non-North Carolinians.

-One "dark horse" suggestion: The pig. While we may disagree on what kind of barbecue we prefer, we can all agree that N.C. BBQ is better than anywhere else in the world.

Do you have an idea for what could be the absolute best symbol for the state of North Carolina? The winning choice will receive some N.C.-related prize.

(Oh, and as a Wolfpacker, I refuse to accept a tar heel as a widely-used symbol for ALL of North Carolina.)

(S.C. flag courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Schoolkids, scientists croaking about state amphibian

From the News & Observer:

"The bullfrog's resonant croak echoes across North Carolina ponds all summer.

"Now its admirers are raising their voices at the General Assembly, asking lawmakers to make the king of frogs the state amphibian. A fourth-grade class at Pines Elementary in Plymouth wants the bullfrog to join the long list of officially sanctioned symbols, which range from the sweet potato to the Eastern box turtle to milk.

"But the state Herpetological Society has jumped in, suggesting other amphibians would be a better symbol. They consider the bullfrog a tad common -- especially for a state that boasts some of the nation's most diverse amphibian populations.

"Caught between schoolchildren and scientists, lawmakers must once again navigate the treacherous currents of symbolic politics. The bill has passed the House and is pending in a Senate committee. ..."

North Carolina has some great state symbols. Some of them make perfect sense (state bird: Cardinal; carnivorous plant: Venus flytrap; stone: Emerald; dance(s): the shag, clogging; flower: Dogwood; mammal: Eastern Gray Squirrel).

Some of them are head-scratchers (beverage: milk -- not Cheerwine or Pepsi?; insect: honey bee -- not mosquito?).

Others you have to assume got in as a rider (state boat: Shad boat?; saltwater fish: Channel bass?; Tartan: Carolina Tartan?).

Still, these are the things I had to learn as a fourth- and eighth-grader. And I'm glad I did.

Are there some symbols that should become state symbols?