Been There – Maryland 2
Starbucks Been There – Maryland v2 has two elements updated:
– there was this “nickname”, “Chesapeake State” which didn’t make any sense. I could not find any source which callled Maryland that way. This controversial detail has been replaced with White Oak, official tree of the state.
– “Oh say can you see…” has been replaced with “O say, can you see…” and I am not sure how accurate it is. There are slightly different variations of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” out there in internet. When referring to history, the seventy-first congress approved an act to make the Star-Spangled Banner the national anthem of the United States of America on March 3, 1931:
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the composition consisting of the words and music known as The Star-Spangled Banner is designated the national anthem of the United States of America”.
As you can see, it doesn’t define the exact lyrics of the anthem. With that in mind, we can refer to original manuscript from Francis Scott Key, the author of the text of the song, which later became US National Anthem. In that paper, it clearly states that the first line is
O say can you see
Which brings me to a crazy theory, that there might be another revision of Maryland mug, fixing this line again. I really hope it is not happening, as there are already too many revised mugs.
The “O” say can you see’ reference (rather than “oh…”) is probably referring to Marylanders screaming “O” during the national anthem because of the Baltimore Orioles. It has been a somewhat controversial thing outside of MD, as other states may find it disrespectful of the national anthem. But MD is a very proud state (for how small we are) and we rejoice in that tradition. We are one of the few states that know our state flag very well and wear it proudly on all types of clothing too.
I have also never heard the reference “Chesapeake State”. We are more commonly called “the old line state” and “little America”. Annapolis, MD is called the “sailing capital” and the catchphrase is “a drinking town with a sailing problem”. Also…Old Bay seasoning.