GW University tried pushing the Hippo as an alternate mascot based on this folk tale, but it never caught on. Even weirder is that when the real mascot (the Colonial) shows up at a basketball game, it’s not a guy in colonial garb, but rather a guy in a plush suit…of a guy in colonial garb.
Coemgenus: GW University tried pushing the Hippo as an alternate mascot based on this folk tale, but it never caught on. Even weirder is that when the real mascot (the Colonial) shows up at a basketball game, it’s not a guy in colonial garb, but rather a guy in a plush suit…of a guy in colonial garb.
Same thing but stranger for Ole Miss’s late mascot Colonel Rebel. It went from a guy dressed up as the Colonel; to a guy in a plush suit of a guy in in Colonel Reb regalia; to a guy in a plush suit of an old guy in shorts, a jersey and a planter hat.
Coemgenus:
GW University tried pushing the Hippo as an alternate mascot based on this folk tale, but it never caught on.Even weirder is that when the real mascot (the Colonial) shows up at a basketball game, it’s not a guy in colonial garb, but rather a guy in a plush suit…of a guy in colonial garb.
I preferred the hippo, personally. I like the absurdity of the hippo, and the tourists who read the plaque about George and Martha’s Potomac Hippos and don’t get it.
Reading down a little from where the hippo was mentioned, in his final illness his doctors bled him four times in a short period – a half pint once, two that were ‘copious’, and then a full quart! How many did the doctors kill?
Why would a hippo be called a sea-horse? The same river Nilus bringeth foorth another beast called Hippopotamus, i. a River-horse. Taller hee is from the ground than the Crocodile: hee hath a cloven foot like a boeufe: the backe, maine, and haire of an horse: and he hath his neighing also http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny8.html
The man had no teeth, he wasn’t as highly educated as his founding father contemporaries, and he had red hair. The real question is whether he could be elected president in modern times – especially given today’s image-centered view of politicians?
The man had no teeth, he wasn’t as highly educated as his founding father contemporaries, and he had red hair. The real question is whether he could be elected president in modern times — especially given today’s image-centered view of politicians?
Probably, because he was about 6’2″ — extremely tall for his day. In contrast, John Adams was 5’7″, and James Madison was 5’4″.
Contemporaries very often cited Mr. Washington’s striking physical presence, using terms for what today would be called “charisma.” I would guess the real question is whether the kind of presence he had would translate via TV, which is how the vast majority of us get to know our leaders these days. Pity.
Of the 300 million, the probability is high that there are a sufficient number who could measure up to the Founder’s character. The probability is low that they would be in politics or journalism.
Katahdin:
Reading down a little from where the hippo was mentioned, in his final illness his doctors bled him four times in a short period — a half pint once, two that were ‘copious’, and then a full quart! How many did the doctors kill?
A lot.
It’s worth noting the state of medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries was really at a low point. While maternal mortality in the 10th century was probably around one death per hundred live births, in the 18th and 19th centuries, if a woman was assisted by a doctor, the rates could be between 10 and 40 per hundred births. Assisted by a nurse, the rates dropped to about 5 per hundred. It took until almost 1900 before rates dropped back to where they were 8 centuries prior.
A LOT of those women who died in childbirth were killed by doctors. A lot of people like George Washington were killed by doctors.
WPB says:
The connection is memorialized in the song by These United States: Washington Dreams of the Hippopotamus.
March 7, 2011, 2:49 pmdearieme says:
The fable about the cherry tree isn’t true of the hippo either.
March 7, 2011, 2:52 pmHarryEagar says:
No? I thought they shared teeth.
March 7, 2011, 3:07 pmCoemgenus says:
GW University tried pushing the Hippo as an alternate mascot based on this folk tale, but it never caught on. Even weirder is that when the real mascot (the Colonial) shows up at a basketball game, it’s not a guy in colonial garb, but rather a guy in a plush suit…of a guy in colonial garb.
March 7, 2011, 3:12 pmgooners says:
Why would a hippo be called a sea-horse?
March 7, 2011, 3:13 pmstunned says:
Dibs on “In Search of Washington’s Hippo” as a book title.
March 7, 2011, 3:16 pmMarcus says:
Because Land Horse was taken by the Sea Monkeys?
March 7, 2011, 3:23 pmtamerlane says:
He died a lot more nobly than von Neuman.
March 7, 2011, 3:32 pmLarryWB says:
The country fathered by Mr. Washington now has more than 300 million people in it. Is there one of them who could measure up to his standard?
March 7, 2011, 3:40 pmgooners says:
Well, there’s me.
March 7, 2011, 3:48 pmMoosebreath says:
Neither are in my kitchen?
March 7, 2011, 3:52 pmUnderdogSoldier says:
Same thing but stranger for Ole Miss’s late mascot Colonel Rebel. It went from a guy dressed up as the Colonel; to a guy in a plush suit of a guy in in Colonel Reb regalia; to a guy in a plush suit of an old guy in shorts, a jersey and a planter hat.
March 7, 2011, 4:07 pmDaniel San says:
Well, obviously Larry mean anyone besides you.
March 7, 2011, 4:41 pmNL says:
I preferred the hippo, personally. I like the absurdity of the hippo, and the tourists who read the plaque about George and Martha’s Potomac Hippos and don’t get it.
March 7, 2011, 4:51 pmys says:
“Hippo” means “horse,” and “potamos” means “river” (adjective). Likewise, walrus is “whale-horse,” but in Nordic, not Greek.
March 7, 2011, 4:59 pmgooners says:
The sea-horse thing is still bugging me. Hippopotamus means “river horse”, not sea horse. A sea horse is a hippocampus.
Edit: posted at the same time as ys. Still doesn’t answer the question. I think that book is just wrong.
March 7, 2011, 4:59 pmys says:
Sometimes you cannot tell a sea from a river (St.Lawrence, La Plata) :-)
March 7, 2011, 5:11 pmKatahdin says:
Reading down a little from where the hippo was mentioned, in his final illness his doctors bled him four times in a short period – a half pint once, two that were ‘copious’, and then a full quart! How many did the doctors kill?
March 7, 2011, 5:22 pmJohn Burgess says:
@Katahdin: ‘Copious’
March 7, 2011, 6:05 pmKatahdin says:
@JohnBurgess: I’m not getting the joke, perhaps. It’s ‘copious’ in the text I was quoting.
March 7, 2011, 7:10 pmKL says:
Why would a hippo be called a sea-horse? The same river Nilus bringeth foorth another beast called Hippopotamus, i. a River-horse. Taller hee is from the ground than the Crocodile: hee hath a cloven foot like a boeufe: the backe, maine, and haire of an horse: and he hath his neighing also
March 7, 2011, 9:00 pmhttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/pliny8.html
Randall says:
The man had no teeth, he wasn’t as highly educated as his founding father contemporaries, and he had red hair. The real question is whether he could be elected president in modern times – especially given today’s image-centered view of politicians?
March 7, 2011, 9:25 pmOrin Kerr says:
Randall:
Probably, because he was about 6’2″ — extremely tall for his day. In contrast, John Adams was 5’7″, and James Madison was 5’4″.
March 7, 2011, 11:24 pmLarryWB says:
Contemporaries very often cited Mr. Washington’s striking physical presence, using terms for what today would be called “charisma.” I would guess the real question is whether the kind of presence he had would translate via TV, which is how the vast majority of us get to know our leaders these days. Pity.
March 8, 2011, 1:57 pmKL says:
I read somewhere that most people were not aware of FDR disability.
March 8, 2011, 3:31 pmjosil says:
Of the 300 million, the probability is high that there are a sufficient number who could measure up to the Founder’s character. The probability is low that they would be in politics or journalism.
March 8, 2011, 7:45 pmRich Rostrom says:
Why did you post this link
http://books.google.com/books?id=fLIoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA58&dq=%22hippopotamus+ivory%22+intitle:washington&hl=en&ei=pTR1TYPxL4G78gbq6Zkq&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22hippopotamus%20ivory%22%20intitle%3Awashington&f=false
when this link works just as well?
http://books.google.com/books?id=fLIoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA58
March 9, 2011, 3:10 amChris Travers says:
I don’t know. They should be called river horses instead.
March 9, 2011, 5:21 pmChris Travers says:
A lot.
It’s worth noting the state of medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries was really at a low point. While maternal mortality in the 10th century was probably around one death per hundred live births, in the 18th and 19th centuries, if a woman was assisted by a doctor, the rates could be between 10 and 40 per hundred births. Assisted by a nurse, the rates dropped to about 5 per hundred. It took until almost 1900 before rates dropped back to where they were 8 centuries prior.
A LOT of those women who died in childbirth were killed by doctors. A lot of people like George Washington were killed by doctors.
March 9, 2011, 5:26 pmChris Travers says:
(They also gave Washington medicines like arsenic after bleeding him.)
March 9, 2011, 5:30 pm