I’ll be honest, I haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to the official Olympic mascot, which at first glance seems to be the Western Kentucky Hilltopper in disguise. Actually, the official name is Phyrge (?). It’s pronounced “freeje” (??). And it’s supposed to be a hat (??!?).
So I was in no way prepared for this note, which was sent to me by Rabbit Hole reader James Gilbert:
Stay with me here: A Phyrgian cap is a soft hat, usually red, that was worn by slaves in the ancient kingdom of Phyrgia. In France, it’s been a symbol of liberty since the storming of the Bastille.
But before that, it was seen as a symbol during the American Revolution, and it shows up quite a bit in the art that created during and about that period. And hence, when North Carolina created a state seal, it’s right there, on top of a stick.
You can see what’s going on with the cap in this state educational diagram. There’s no explanation as to why Liberty isn’t actually wearing the cap, and has instead chosen to put it on top of a pole.
Other Olympic Rabbit Holes
From Axios: Here’s a whole list of North Carolina-connected Olympians and Paralympians. And here are the ones that have won medals in Paris (at least the ones that I’ve been able to find):
Kaylyn Brown, track, one silver
Sammy Sullivan, rugby, bronze
Cierra Burdick, basketball, bronze
Evy Leibfarth, canoeing, bronze
Anna Cockrell, track, gold and silver
Steph Curry, basketball, gold
Could the Olympics happen here? Some folks are spending, um, a lot of state grant money to try to get them here and not much has happened yet, according to a deep dive from The Assembly.
From the Archive: An episode of the North Carolina Rabbit Hole podcast (formerly Away Message) on the life of Jeff Postell, who was a rookie police officer in Murphy when he caught Eric Rudolph, who’d been on the run ever since he set off a bomb at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
If you’re a North Carolina border truther, one Olympic event did happen here: The canoe slalom events at the 1996 Atlanta games. Those events were held at the Ocoee Whitewater Center near Ducktown, Tennessee. That area should have been part of North Carolina. Why isn’t it? Because in 1819, the surveyors (allegedly) ran out of whiskey, stopped following the ridge line, and instead drew the border as a straight line. This is what you get when you send people into rugged terrain and expect them to stay sober.