The results of the contest are in and, depite their eyelashes, I’ve decided that the giraffes are named Barney and Jefferson Walker.
I really have to thank everyone for not naming on Geoffrey, I’ve never liked how that giraffe went about flagrantly spelling his name wrong.
Today’s photo comes from corresponding photographer (and the man who hosts this website) Chris, who took this photo of an Annapolis sunset in 2002.
Here are the Giraffes from the zoo, showing off their flexibility to eat things in trees and on the ground.
. Anyone want to name these guys?
I really like this photo and I’ve been holding on to it for just the right occasion. I can’t think of anyting better than today, so here it is. Lets all wish the Terps good luck in today’s tournament.
There isn’t much to say about Concord Point Lighthouse that isn’t covered by the phrase, “It is awesome.”
The lighthouse was manned for the majority of its life (which started in 1827) by the O’neil family of Havre De Grace. (more Havre De Grace posts to come) One of them actually defended the lighthouse with a cannon and there is a monument to this action on the water-side of the light. The keeper’s home still stands across the street form the tower. It too was built in 1827.
According to the sign in front, it is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the bay.
However, it is not the oldest lighthouse on the
Does anyone else miss the old style bay plates. I liked the simple coloring and the unique stance of the Blue Heron.
What we see here is one of the remaining markers from the survey of the trans-peninsular line that cuts across the Delmarva peninsula and defines the southern border of Delaware. I will take the time now to once again butcher and abridge some history for you.
The charter given to the Penns for the three counties of Delaware effectively carved them out of what was then considered to be Maryland. This caused some confusion as to where the boundaries should be and it then began a longstanding legal battle after it was drawn over where the line should have been drawn.
(Some of the highlights of the arguments between the Calvert’s and Penns included not only Delaware’s boundaries, but also the location of the southern border of Pennsylvania. George Calvert’s original charter for Maryland included land up to the 40th parallel, which would encompass what is today Philadelphia.)
On the Delmarva peninsula, it was decided that the Eastern-Western boundary between Delaware and Maryland would be that which split the peninsula in half, but the Northern-Southern boundary caused significantly more confusion.
The Calvert’s suggested drawing the line beginning at a place that is phonetically called Cape Henlopen.
The problem is that there are two capes on the map of Delaware at the time, which both could sound similar. There are different spellings on some maps. Other maps exclude some of the capes altogether. You have to keep in mind that the Lords Baltimore never had the use of google maps or mapquest, or of the wonderful ADC maps we all keep in the car.
To give an example of the problem: on some maps, one of the capes was spelled Cape Inlopen. However, when you say this phonetically as if you were a Dutch settler at the time, then you might be pronouncing what we today would call an H sound.
Where are these two Cape Henlopens? Well one is where modern day Fenwick Island is. (at the modern border) The other, which has retained the name Cape Henlopen, is at the northernmost piece of oceanfront land in Delaware, literally at the opening of the Delaware bay. So by now, you can tell which cape was used to draw the line and you can also tell which cape the Calverts had intended to use.
Now there’s another wrinkle. The map that was used to draw the line, was a map offered by the Maryland side. This map apparently had Cape Henlopen in the position of modern Fenwick Island. This made it very difficult for the Calverts to later battle with the Penns in court in hopes of having the line redrawn.
So here is one of the markers, which were placed every 5 miles along the border. They were apparently cast in England.
Tomorrow’s post might not have any writing to go with it. Just a warning.
Here you see the monument to Major General Joseph Mansfield in the background with the cannon in the foreground that marks the spot where he was mortally wouned.
Throughout the battlefields at Antietam you will find cannons such as these to mark the spots where all six generals who died or would later die were wounded at Antietam. In a battle that was waged all day, Mansfield was wounded early, as he was deploying his troops towards the cornfield, which was the first of the three stages of battle there.
The monument in the background is inscribed:
Major General
Joseph K. F. Mansfield
Commanding the 12th Corps Army of the Potomac mortally wounded near this spot
September 17, 1862 about 7:35 A.M. while deploying his corps in action.
How Mansfield died is one of the interesting stories of Antietam. As he was making his way to the front line he noticed that they were firing into a woods that Mansfield believed contained retreating union troops. Seeing this, he rode to the line and told them, “you are firing at your own men.”
After the men on the line convinced the general that they were in fact firing at the enemy and after agreeing, saying, “yes, yes, you are right,” he was then shot.
There have been a few requests, though not on the wishlist, for some more shots of the UMCP. So of course, I am happy to ablige.
This is the newest sculpture of the beloved testudo, located right next to the new Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center. For more information about the Alumni Center, check your inbox, or ask me to forward a recent e-mail to you.
Special thanks to corresponding photographer Royela for the observing the state of Testudo’s nose as in the title of the post.
Today’s “post” comes to us from corresponding photographer Trish, who was on assignment in Ellicott city and took this great shot of these posts in the street. I’m always a fan of nighttime photography but Trish has really done a great job of bringing out the colors on the sidewalk.
As a trivial side note, Ellicott city is in Howard county, which is the only county in Maryland that is neither bordered by water (meaning the bay or the ocean as the Patuxent river does not count) nor bordered by another state.
The Maryland Zoo opened this past weekend, and it is offering reduced admission prices until the “on” season.
These guys were tired after a long day of putting on a show for the new visitors, but I’m glad I got to see them at rest.
I don’t know if it was a subconscious action or not, but after seeing this, I was very intent on getting myself a soft drink. Sadly they were out of soda at the concession stand so I had a salted pretzel instead, which just served to compound my thirst.
Also of note, this fulfills another wishlist request. Let me know what else you want to see.
