fun with mascots

A zillion years ago when i was in elementary school we didn't have school mascots until middle school or junior high - basically once there were bands and sports teams you need a mascot. Not anymore, baby : no self-respecting school from college down through preschool would be caught dead without a mascot. Mostly they are animals with some being more common than others - birds, large cats, dolphins and pandas are among the most popular. Sometimes I'm just caught off-guard by something unusual (if we ever go back to the school with the anthropomorphic skipjack i'm taking a picture!) like a school i recently visited for the first time. The outside of the school had a lovely mural obviously painted at least in part by students, depicting a water scene, which makes sense since the school was surrounded by water : I really liked how they used kids' hand prints to make the spines on the sea creature. Once inside i realized that the school mascot must BE a sea creature cause it is on everything. That is a new one for me. Sea creature? Sea serpent? Chessie? (the Chesapeake Bay version of the Loch Ness monster) I am unclear exactly what the mascot was; i never saw it named. And the "G___ I____ Country day School sea serpents" doesn't really roll off of the tongue. Whatever it is, it's both cool and original. Most schools have versions of the mascot plastered everywhere, but this place went above and beyond. There were hand-sewn sea serpent curtains in the faculty bathroom: I learned a lot about sea serpents that day : they come in different shapes and different colors, they can be fierce or friendly, and they enjoy playing soccer