From iceberg comparisons to wedding brawls: Mark Patinkin surveys RI's social media image
Since too many folks now get their world views from social media, I thought I’d check how Rhode Island is being portrayed.
So I searched the state name on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to see what came up.
One of the first posts affirmed the old truth that the state is a unit of measurement. The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University announced that the world’s largest iceberg is “on the move” in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, and it’s bigger than … I think you know the comparison they used.
And, my goodness, it happened again a few posts later – an account called “Traces of Texas” with 134,000 followers reminded the world that their King Ranch, America’s biggest at 825,000 acres, is larger than all of Rhode Island, a mere 776,960 acres.
Since I was searching on the 43rd anniversary of baseball’s longest game in Pawtucket, an account called “#OTD in Rhode Island History” posted the next morning’s story from The Providence Journal saying that at 4:07 a.m., after 8 hours and 7 minutes, exactly 27 fans were left watching in 45-degree weather when the game was suspended in the 32nd inning – to be finished later. I can only hope my paper paid our PawSox guy overtime.
#OTD – meaning “on this day” – also said that the day before, April 17, 1917, Rhode Island became the first East Coast state to give women the right to vote for president. Ever progressive here.
In a more current sports post, a midfielder on Pawtucket’s new minor league soccer team made ESPN’s top 10 with what my kids would call a “sick” goal-kick from outside the box into the upper left corner against Charlotte. Rhode Island FC reposted a video of it saying of scorer Clay Holstad, “The dude abides.” He does, indeed. It’s some very high-level soccer.
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I also learned that in 1885, the first person of color was elected to Rhode Island’s legislature – Mahlon Van Horne, pastor of the Union Colored Congregational Church in Newport. That's from an ongoing exhibit called the “Gilded Age Newport in Color” at Rosecliff – worth checking out. Van Horne, by the way, was a Republican.
In a related post, JustMaps reminded the world that from 1989 to 1991, in a quirk of the state’s Democratic headlock, both our congresspeople, weirdly, were Republicans – Ron Machtley and Claudine Schneider. But during those same years, ultra-conservative Idaho had all Democrats, so it balanced out.
A vegetarian named Tal was nice enough to call Providence “the Paris of New England” in another post. To which a user named Saltz replied, “Paris is the Providence of Europe.”
Do you remember that absurd melee in Newport last September when members of a preppie-looking wedding party attacked cops and got a lot more than they bargained for? The video is now on clickbait sites, including “Freakouts and Crazy Content,” and “CCTV Idiots,” – and it came up twice in my scrolling. Probably not the best image for us, but that’s X.
For those who say people from here don’t like to travel more than 10 minutes by car, I give you this post from local Sammi Acampora: “I spent the last 19 days driving from Rhode Island to Los Angeles by myself. I feel pretty great about it.”
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I also felt a shiver of pride at a post about a standout area of our agriculture. It seems that Rhode Island, along with Florida, Oklahoma, New Jersey and South Carolina, is among the top states for sod production per square mile. But the post focused on us: “Congratulations to Rhode Island. King of Sod.” I like that more than “Cooler & Warmer.” And another agriculturally focused post lauded our 2,000-pound pumpkins.
Then came a less boastful stat. According to a property analyst called ATTOM, Rhode Island was fourth in the country in foreclosure increases last quarter, after New Hampshire, Illinois and Florida. We were up 21%. There were other posts about the affordable housing crisis here – unfortunately accurate.
Finally, a post by Stephen Krespel offered this police blotter report from what he called “The mean streets of Bristol”: “Police received a report of a possibly injured chicken on Union Street at 8:26 a.m. The owner was located and said they would seek medical attention for the chicken.”
Woven through all of this were photos of flowering spring trees and oceanfront lighthouses.
Although random, as X is by nature, it seemed a fair take of our quirky past and present – our housing challenges and physical beauty.
And, of course, a reminder that the state is forever destined to be a unit of measurement.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: How does the world view RI? Mark Patinkin asks social media
