mascot_p

[Robert J. Hansen]

> I was going to suggest a hedgehog (it's likeable, generally favours security 
> over speed, and knows to protect itself), but a terrapin sounds great. Now I 
> just have to find out the difference between a terrapin and a turtle…

The Algonquin tribe of Native Americans, originally living in Virginia,
had a word for turtle: "torope".  American settlers adopted this word
and over the last 400 years it's been corrupted into "terrapin."  As a
result, "terrapin" has become a common American synonym for "turtle,"
but the word's rarely used in the rest of the world.