| General Fiction posted July 26, 2020 | Chapters: |
...5 6 -7- 8... 
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A little bit about Connecticut
A chapter in the book Attack of the Fifty States
Attack of the 50 States: Connect
by Bill Schott
When I think about Connecticut, all my thoughts are gray and cold. I want to be happy, perhaps thinking about Mark Twain's 'Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'. The 1945 film, 'Christmas in Connecticut' should make me feel good. Barbara Stanwyck does a thing with a guy in a place during that other thing.
Neither of these 'ups' can distract from the downs of my history with Connecticut.
As a child and an adult, I failed to spell the state correctly on my first effort. The silent C always eluded me. My brother would always pronounce it as Conn-neck-ti-cut. He also pronounced the K in knife and the P in psycho.
Connecticut is always difficult to find on a map. It's couched on the east coast, hiding next to Rhode Island. My brother pronounced the H in that state name too. Let's not forget opossum. But I digress.
I understand that Connecticutians are fleeing the state daily to escape incredibly high taxes. Truth be known, they may have tired of spelling it wrong and having to correct those who mispronounced it.
Before leaving this state, and I apologize to all those from Connecticut for my brevity, I would mention both nutmeg and the Connecticut Compromise.
In 1787 Connecticut's legislature presented the idea that states could be evenly represented, despite the size or population, if they all had two senators and representatives for different regions of the individual state. This became the Great Compromise and part of the Constitution.
Connecticut is known as the Nutmeg State, although not a single nutmeg tree grows there. Some confusing legend allows that sailors would bring the nutmeg seeds back from Indonesia and sell them to peddlers in America. The seeds were really expensive, so half of the barrels sold were simply carved wooden balls that would pass for the seeds, which look similar to walnuts to me. So, the nickname seems to indicate a heritage of 'being so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell wooden nutmegs'. Sounds like a good place to start a political system, doesn't it?
I can only say that Connecticut is easier to say than the native tribal name of Quinnehtukqut, which I would most certainly misspell.
When I think about Connecticut, all my thoughts are gray and cold. I want to be happy, perhaps thinking about Mark Twain's 'Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'. The 1945 film, 'Christmas in Connecticut' should make me feel good. Barbara Stanwyck does a thing with a guy in a place during that other thing.
Neither of these 'ups' can distract from the downs of my history with Connecticut.
As a child and an adult, I failed to spell the state correctly on my first effort. The silent C always eluded me. My brother would always pronounce it as Conn-neck-ti-cut. He also pronounced the K in knife and the P in psycho.
Connecticut is always difficult to find on a map. It's couched on the east coast, hiding next to Rhode Island. My brother pronounced the H in that state name too. Let's not forget opossum. But I digress.
I understand that Connecticutians are fleeing the state daily to escape incredibly high taxes. Truth be known, they may have tired of spelling it wrong and having to correct those who mispronounced it.
Before leaving this state, and I apologize to all those from Connecticut for my brevity, I would mention both nutmeg and the Connecticut Compromise.
In 1787 Connecticut's legislature presented the idea that states could be evenly represented, despite the size or population, if they all had two senators and representatives for different regions of the individual state. This became the Great Compromise and part of the Constitution.
Connecticut is known as the Nutmeg State, although not a single nutmeg tree grows there. Some confusing legend allows that sailors would bring the nutmeg seeds back from Indonesia and sell them to peddlers in America. The seeds were really expensive, so half of the barrels sold were simply carved wooden balls that would pass for the seeds, which look similar to walnuts to me. So, the nickname seems to indicate a heritage of 'being so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell wooden nutmegs'. Sounds like a good place to start a political system, doesn't it?
I can only say that Connecticut is easier to say than the native tribal name of Quinnehtukqut, which I would most certainly misspell.
Neither of these 'ups' can distract from the downs of my history with Connecticut.
As a child and an adult, I failed to spell the state correctly on my first effort. The silent C always eluded me. My brother would always pronounce it as Conn-neck-ti-cut. He also pronounced the K in knife and the P in psycho.
Connecticut is always difficult to find on a map. It's couched on the east coast, hiding next to Rhode Island. My brother pronounced the H in that state name too. Let's not forget opossum. But I digress.
I understand that Connecticutians are fleeing the state daily to escape incredibly high taxes. Truth be known, they may have tired of spelling it wrong and having to correct those who mispronounced it.
Before leaving this state, and I apologize to all those from Connecticut for my brevity, I would mention both nutmeg and the Connecticut Compromise.
In 1787 Connecticut's legislature presented the idea that states could be evenly represented, despite the size or population, if they all had two senators and representatives for different regions of the individual state. This became the Great Compromise and part of the Constitution.
Connecticut is known as the Nutmeg State, although not a single nutmeg tree grows there. Some confusing legend allows that sailors would bring the nutmeg seeds back from Indonesia and sell them to peddlers in America. The seeds were really expensive, so half of the barrels sold were simply carved wooden balls that would pass for the seeds, which look similar to walnuts to me. So, the nickname seems to indicate a heritage of 'being so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell wooden nutmegs'. Sounds like a good place to start a political system, doesn't it?
I can only say that Connecticut is easier to say than the native tribal name of Quinnehtukqut, which I would most certainly misspell.
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