When I was a little girl, my mother sometimes used the phrase, “His name is mud.” Of course, I thought the person to which she was referring was dirty and icky and caked with that stuff of which swamps are made. Later, I discovered, I was wrong. The expression is, “His name is Mudd” with Mudd referring to that doctor who assisted the assassin of President Lincoln on his attempted escape, and meaning scurrilous, despicable, wicked.
Now, mud in Maine is with a small “m” and, indeed, means dirt mixed with water. Mud season in Maine is March and April when all the ice and snow are melting and doing the woo-hoo dance with ground soil. This is not the time and place to wear your Gucci heels.
Here is a word for you. Tipicditocreps is a scientific term applied to a clay-type soil that is widespread in Maine. Samantha Langley-Turnbaugh is a professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Southern Maine. She says certain properties of the clay favor production of the mud, unlike other soil types. ”You get mud when the water can’t infiltrate into the soil fast enough; if you have very sandy soil water can run off so you never have mud. You need water staying on the surface of the soil, if run-off is greater than infiltration, that’s when you get mud.”
Thus endth the lesson.
Diana
