Welcome to Maoist Orange Cake. Each week one of our Divas posts a thoughtful (but not necessarily serious) essay on whatever calls forth her Voice or strikes her Fancy. We invite you to join us wherever the discussion leads.
Motto of the MOC: Sincere, yes. Serious? Never!

"I would also like to add that ‘Maoist Orange Cake is possibly the best name for a blog ever. Just my twopence." -- The Sixth Carnival of Radical Feminists, 1 October 2007


The Twelfth Carnival of Radical Feminists is up at The Burning Times blog and mentions one of our posts, Helen 'Wheels' Keller, for recommendation. Orangeists spreading our zest!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Fighting Geoducks

Making good on my threat in the previous thread, here is a photo of Speedy Geoduck, mascot of Washington’s official hippie college, The Evergreen State College (don’t forget the definite article!).

The Geoduck Fight Song
by Malcolm Stilson, 1971
Go, Geoducks go,
Through the mud and the sand, let’s go.
Siphon high, squirt it out,
Swivel all about,
Let it all hang out.
Go, Geoducks go,
Stretch your necks when the tide is low
Siphon high, squirt it out,
Swivel all about,
Let it all hang out.



Digging for geoducks is not easy. They dig fast, and you have to wield your shovel even faster to catch one, hence the nickname “Speedy.” The word is pronounced “gooey-duck.” Don’t ask way; that’s just the way it is. After you’ve dug like mad and covered yourself with muck, this is what you get:

Don’t freak out too badly, it’s just a clam. Here’s what the TESC website has to say: The geoduck is a mollusk native to the Pacific Northwest. The geoduck is the largest burrowing clam in the world, weighing in at anywhere from one to three pounds at maturity. The appearance of geoduck’s large, protruding siphon has led to the belief that the geoduck has the properties of an aphrodisiac. The geoduck has a life expectancy of up to 150 years with the oldest recorded at 163 years.

When I was with Puddletown Dancers, the gay square dance club in Seattle, we gave a festival every year called the Geoduck Jamboree. Of course no one from the other clubs around the country knew what a geoduck is or how to pronounce the word. That was the whole idea; we were enlightening them. After about ten years, saner and more boring heads prevailed and the festival was re-named “Spin the Needle.” How tedious. Nevertheless, I still have a hot pink t-shirt depicting a geoduck wearing a cowboy hat. It’s an extra-small, and I’m not sure I can still squeeze my matronly body into it, but I wouldn’t think of getting rid of it.

No bad for an ugly bivalve.

3 comments:

shadocat said...

Jana, is that a clam, or some kinda weird phallic symbol?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for enlightening us Jana! That is certainly the most interesting piece of fauna I've come across in a while. And dig that mascot costume! :)

Jana C.H. said...

Shadocat--

Both.

JcH