They sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats

The Dragon Boat Festival, Duanwu Festival or Duen Ng Festival is a traditional Chinese festival held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar (June 19, 2007 and June 8, 2008). It is also known as the Double Fifth ("Duan Wu" in Mandarin). In the West, it is commonly known as a Dragon Boat Festival and is typically celebrated during the summer months with dragon boat races and competitions being the focus of the activities.

The Duen Ng Festival originated in ancient China. One traditional view holds that the festival memorializes the high official Wut Yuen or Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC-278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu (Warring States Period). Wut Yuen committed suicide by drowning himself in a river because he found out that Chu had lost a vital battle. The local people, knowing him to be a good man, decided to throw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Wut Yuen's body. They also sat on long, narrow paddle boats called dragon boats, and tried to scare the fish away by the thundering sound of drums aboard the boat and the fierce looking carved dragon head on the boat's prow.

Here in the USA the Tampa Bay Dragon Boat is just one of the many organized training camps springing up everywhere. In Canada Great White North, GWN, is the one-stop shop for all things dragon boat. Despite this enthusiasm and organization, in North America, teams typically paddle at stroke rates of 60 to 85 spm (stroke per minute). In Asia, top teams can pull water at stroke rates above 100 spm! It is common for four or more teams in a race to finish close together and only split-second apart. Many competitive teams post times around 2.5 minutes to cover 500m while elite teams can cover the same course length in less than 2 minutes.

You may enjoy reading about another aquatic event as 2,000 skeptical spectators watch five brave participants attempt to maneuver their hollowed-out giant pumpkins across Lake Pisiquid.

The creature, called Swamp Thing, was originally conceived as Alec Holland mutating into a vegetable-like creature, a "muck-encrusted mockery of a man". However, under writer Alan Moore, Swamp Thing was reinvented as an elemental entity created upon the death of Alec Holland, with Holland's memory and personality intact. He is described as "a plant that thought it was Alec Holland, a plant that was trying its level best to be Alec Holland."

Alan Moore's Swamp Thing had a profound effect on mainstream comic books, being the first horror comic to approach the genre from a literary point of view since the EC horror comics of the 1950's, and broadened the scope of the series to include ecological and spiritual concerns while retaining its horror-fantasy roots.

Waldo County, situated in mid-coast Maine along scenic Penobscot Bay, has genuine New England character evidenced by working port towns and quaint rural villages. Visitors are awed by the area's unspoiled beauty. From striking coastal views to sweeping mountain vistas, dramatic natural settings abound. In addition great care has been taken to preserve and refurbish numerous historic landmarks, homes and buildings. Consequently, the Maine of yesteryear is still found here.

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