Honoring those who served in the American Revolution

OK, I didn’t know this trivia question on DownEast.com. It’s kind of interesting. I wish the answer had included when the monument was placed there. And it wouldn’t hurt if a photo had been included. Ah, well …

Where is the monument honoring Maine Indians who fought in the Revolutionary War?

Answer:

At the Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation. It was placed there by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Sssssensational! No poisonous snakes in Maine – mostly | DownEast.com

I was a wildland firefighter for three summers while attending college and we were always told to watch out for rattlesnakes.

And paying for green fees in California, Nevada and other western states might come with a warning to avoid certain areas on the golf course infested with snakes. (“Sooo, is that a 7-iron, then?” – a reply to a warning about snakes at a golf course in Carson City, Nevada.)

The answer to the DownEast.com trivia question should calm any concerns for parents in Maine about letting their children play in the outdoors.

Is it true that Maine has no venomous snakes?

Answer:

Yes. Though a small number of timber rattlesnakes, considered transient, have been spotted in southernmost Maine, the state is considered the only one of the Lower 48 to have no native venomous snakes.

OK, here’s a family-lore story. The story goes that my father, sister and very probably my mother and I were outside. My father and mother very likely were doing yard work; my sister and I were too young.

At one point my sister wandered to the edge of the property and brought back with her a run-of-the-mill garter snake and tried to show it to my father. Apparently, my father was particularly frightened of snakes – and the little garter snake was no exception. He apparently backed away from my sister, yelling at her to drop the snake.

No one was harmed, not even the snake.

There may be a problem with the trivia question answer, however, and it might require a mild clarification. I just noticed in a Wikipedia entry on garter snakes that

“Garters were long thought to be nonvenomous, but recent discoveries have revealed that they do in fact produce a mild neurotoxic venom. Garter snakes are nevertheless harmless to humans due to the very low amounts of venom they produce, which is comparatively mild, and the fact that they lack an effective means of delivering it.”

So there you have the skinny of snakes.

Hello? Is this the person to whom I am calling?

I think I might have shared this DownEast.com trivia question another time, but it still bring a smirk to my face.

Where was the last hand-cranked phone taken out of service?

Answer

It was in Bryant Pond (Maine) in 1983.

Stumped by a DownEast.com trivia question – again

OK, so I was stumped by today’s DownEast.com trivia question.
And I’m a tiny bit embarrassed by that since I grew up in the Maine North Woods and I should have known better. Here it is:

What's a Bangor Tiger?

Answer

It's a traditional name for a skillful competitor in the sport of log-rolling (birling). The name was given to Penobscot river-drivers in the nineteenth century.

I’ll remember it now, you can be sure of that.

In search of pirate treasure on a Maine island

Tales of buried treasure have sparked the imagination of young and old for centuries. The high-seas adventure of boarding a ship or fending off marauders, the clink of clashing cutlasses and the boom of canons, it all stirs excitement in most of us.

Maine’s coast is a tough, rough, rugged fortress of surf-honed granite. It has been a favorite place frequented by pirates, smugglers, bootleggers, and drug mules.

So here is today’s trivia question from DownEast.com about buried treasure.

Trivia

On what island is Captain Kidd’s treasure reportedly buried?

Answer:

Jewell Island in Casco Bay is most commonly mentioned as the pirate’s hiding place, but before he was hanged he gave his wife a piece of paper with the numbers 44-10-66-18, which have been interpreted as the latitude and longitude of Deer Isle. Richmond Island and Squirrel Island have also been mentioned.