User:Chesapeake77/sandbox

Mariupol
Through tears, Anya called this woman her hero and emphasized that to venture into the streets of Mariupol is suicide. "I don’t mean to frighten you," she said, "but when you walk outside, you see bodies lying everywhere. It's horrific."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/03/19/voices-mariupol-ukraine-where-300-000-civilians-under-siege/7085126001/

Newsweek
Reliable sources/Perennial sources

WP:NEWSWEEK

Question
I notice you have a fancy signature (which looks cool). But I'm wondering-- do you have a way of typing in four tildes (four of these-- "~") to make your fancy signature then automatically appear?

Or do you have another short-cut way to do it?

Or do you have to always cut and paste in the code for your fancy signature each time?

Thanks in advance for any tips. Appreciatively.

 Chesapeake77 >>> ♥ Truth 
 * Hi @Chesapeake77! I do have a way of adding my signature by typing four tildes. The way to change it from the automatic signature is very simple. What you need to do is, navigate to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences, and scroll down until you see "Signature". Copy your signature's html code into the text box and check "Treat the above as wiki markup" and then press save. This will make your tilde signature the custom signature you've designed as long as it 255 characters or shorter (yours is 215 characters in length, so in theory, you could add even more to you signature if you like). By the way, I think your signature looks very nice!  Physeters ✉
 * Pinging @Chesapeake77-- Physeters ✉ 17:32, 19 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Oh, and I forgot, if you want the signature to show up on other wikimedia websites, you have to update your signature in the same manner as laid out above on each website. So for example, if you wanted to update it on Wikimedia Commons, you would go to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences and do the same as instructed above for Wikipedia.  Physeters ✉ 17:37, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

Sandbox


Southern Maryland is a geographical, cultural and historic region in Maryland composed of the state's southernmost counties on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. According to the state of Maryland, the region includes all of Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's counties and the southern portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties.

Southern Maryland is the birthplace of religious freedom in North America. In the 1649 in St. Mary's City, the first Maryland colony and it's original capitol for 60 years, the Maryland Toleration Act was enacted in the colony's early assembly, the first law in America prohibiting persecution of people of different Christian faiths. Margaret Brent, one of the early colonists, was the first woman in America to act as a lawyer, representing dozens of women before the Maryland assembly in Southern Maryland which also served as a court. She was the first woman in America to petition the government for the right to vote, although she was unsuccessful. The National Register of Historic places lists hundreds of historic buildings in Southern Maryland, some dating as far back as the 1600s.

Southern Maryland, including southern Prince Georges and Ann Arundel counties, has a combined population of over 650,000. Once considered an out of the way remote area, the region has experienced explosive growth of Washington D.C. and Annapolis commuter developments and related commercial areas, as well as strong defense contractor expansion. The region hosts seven military bases and it's northern areas are within commuting distance of either the Pentagon in Northern Virginia or the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. Many military related workers are also employed by defense contractors. The civilian federal government is also a major employer along with non-military government contractors. Tourism, especially historical tourism, and water recreation are also growing regional sectors. Agricultural areas are losing size due to development pressure and federal and state efforts to eliminate tobacco farming. In the seafood industry, crabbing, oystering and fishing communities are under severe stress due to decades long overfishing and oyster disease, as well as some cyclical issues in the case of the blue crab population.

The region has also undergone major demographic shifts in the last 30 years. Both Charles County and Prince Georges County have become majority African American counties, Prince Georges County has the largest Black middle-class population in the United States and also has the largest college or university educated Black population in America, and Charles County is in the top five. St. Mary's, Calvert and Ann Arundel Counties have all doubled in population but remain majority White, all with about 17% Black or African American residents. Other groups include a consistent 5.5% hispanic population almost exclusively from Central America, a smaller East Asian population and about 1,000 descendents of the original Native American people of the region who still identify primarily as Indian (of the three Piscataway nations). An Amish community of about 1,000 people has been well established since the 1940s in St. Mary's County in the Mechanicsville-Charlotte Hall area.

In rural areas and smaller towns and CDPs many White and Black residents of Southern Maryland have roots going back as far as over 450 years to the 1600s and the founding of the first Maryland colony. Ridge in St. Mary's County has the oldest Black Catholic parish in North America and neighboring St. Inigoes has the first Catholic parish. The majority of descendents of the early colonists are Episcopalian, still the dominant rural faith in the region. Since the population shifts in Charles and Prince Georges Counties, Black Baptist denominations and other historically Black churches predominate there.

Native Americans and first contact with the British
Southern Maryland was originally inhabited by Piscataway Indians. Captain John Smith explored the area in 1608 and 1609. In 1634 St. Mary's City, at southern Maryland's lower tip was the site of Maryland's first colonial settlement, it was never a city but became a settlement of nearly 1,000 people and was the first capitol of the Province of Maryland for about 60 years. It was also the first Roman Catholic English settlement in North America and is considered the birthplace of religious freedom in North America. Today, two thirds of the original site is now a large living history museum complex and archeological research area and the other third is now the campus of St. Mary's College of Maryland.

The early Maryland colony
The colony originally focused on tobacco farming and was very successful although disease was a problem and many settlers died until immunities built up in the population. Religious tensions and also periods of open conflict also continued to be a major challenge.

St. Mary's City is widely considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in North America. The colony there started under a mandate of religious tolerance in a time when England was anything but religiously tolerant. There was still much religious strife in St. Mary's City that led to the passage of one of the earliest laws requiring religious tolerance which was written and passed there by the Maryland colonial assembly. The first woman to ever request a vote in North America speaking English is very likely to have occurred there as well.

The fall of St. Mary's City
After 61 years as Maryland's capital an uprising of Protestants put an end to religious tolerance, overthrowing the old Catholic leadership and putting an end to colonial St. Mary's City itself, moving the colonial capital to Annapolis.

Plantation economy and slavery
St. Mary's City was abandoned as a capitol but was slowly consolidated from smaller farms into a large, single slave plantation by the late 1600s., Tobacco and later, also wheat plantations, expanded there and in Southern Maryland as a whole during the slavery era.

The plantation system is believed to have contributed to rural poverty even before the end of slavery as it depressed the local labor market and stunted other forms of economic growth. Poverty and ignorance grew and the area became known for lack of education and rural impoverishment, except for a tiny handful of well educated and wealthy plantation owners.

Civil War
During the American Civil War, wartime sympathies were divided in Maryland and Southern Maryland was sympathetic to the Confederates next to Maryland's Eastern Shore. From the war's beginning, however, large numbers of Union occupying troops and patrolling river gunboats prevented the state's secession, although frequent nighttime smuggling across the Potomac River with Virginia took place, including of Maryland men volunteering for Confederate service. John Wilkes Booth was helped by several people in his escape through the area and in crossing the river after killing President Abraham Lincoln. Thousands of captured Confederate troops were confined in harsh conditions at Point Lookout prison camp at the southern tip of the peninsula.

Transition to modern era
Southern Maryland was traditionally a rural, agricultural, oyster fishing and crabbing region; linked by passenger and freight steamboat routes. These steamboat routes operated on the Chesapeake Bay and major rivers until the 1930s before the building of highways and the Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge on U.S. Highway 301. (The latter highway was named after Robert Crain, an attorney who owned the state's largest farm, Mount Victoria, and who campaigned for the road's construction). Weekend excursion boats also carried Washingtonians to small amusement parks and amusement pavilions at numerous Potomac shore locations. From 1949 (1943 in some places) to 1968, the region was known for its poverty and its slot machine gambling.

Raley's campaign to modernize St. Mary's County
There was a lot of rural poverty at the time, and the gambling came to be seen as a blight and was finally outlawed by Governor J. Millard Tawes and the state legislature. A local political figure, St. Mary's County politician J. Frank Raley Jr. organized a slate of local candidates with the platform of challenging the old political machine and lifting the region out of its generations long poverty.

Raley led the way in ending the region's isolation by having a series of bridges built and roads expanded into highways. Raley is largely credited for enabling the development of modern St. Mary's County.

He was falsely accused of working to end gambling outright in the region, which ended in his defeat and his official political career. In fact he had supported a referendum on gambling which would have put the decision directly in the hands of voters. He continued nevertheless lobbying on behalf of the Southern Maryland region and sitting on development boards and so continued to have a major influence in favor of economic development in the region for the rest of his life.

Population and economics
During recent times, the region experienced suburban development as the Washington suburbs expanded southward. This expansion took place primarily in Prince George's County, and around Waldorf (a regional shopping hub) and St. Charles (a planned community in Charles County), Lexington Park (St. Mary's County) and Prince Frederick (Calvert County). However, as noted, land-use maps show that the area is still primarily low-density.

Many southern Marylanders work at Andrews Air Force Base, the U.S. Census Bureau or at Patuxent River Naval Air Station and its related industries. Other smaller industries include a nuclear power plant and a liquified natural gas terminal (both in Lusby), a Naval ordnance test ground (at Indian Head), electric power plants (at Aquasco and Morgantown) and an oil terminal (at Piney Point). The beautiful towns of Solomons Island and Chesapeake Beach are favorite weekend tourist resorts. Maryland International Raceway and Budds Creek Raceway near Chaptico attract many auto and motocross racing enthusiasts.

While the steamboats are long gone, more than three-quarters of the land area is still rural, a mixture of forest and farmland. The growing of tobacco, once a dominant crop, has declined greatly because of elimination of federal protectionist programs and state government farm buyouts during the 1990s.

St. Mary's County is home to Amish and Mennonite communities. In addition, three state recognized tribes exist Piscataway Native American tribe, tribes that live along the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay in southern Maryland (see We-Sorts). Fishing, boating and crabbing are popular activities in this region; large marinas are found in the Solomons Island and North Beach areas. However, the population of fish and other marine life is threatened by pollution and environmental factors. Ancient marine fossils are abundant at Calvert Cliffs.

Military bases
Southern Maryland has seven military bases.


 * Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Lexington Park, St. Mary's County, home of the national test pilot school and place where the F-35 fighter aircraft was developed.
 * Joint Base Andrews (Andrews Air Force Base), Camp Springs, in southern Prince Georges County, home of Air Force One and Marine One, aircraft for the president of the United States
 * Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head, Charles County, national munitions research and development center
 * Webster Field, St. Inigoes, St. Mary's County, aircraft research and development, training field for test pilots
 * US Military Reserve Globecom Radio Recieving Station, classified base in Brandywine, Maryland, linked by encoded radio to the White House, Air Force One, the Department of Defense Command and worldwide nuclear submarines via satellite in case of nuclear war, for security reasons the base does not appear on Google Maps
 * Coast Guard Station Cove Point, Calvert County and Coast Guard Station St. Inigoes, St. Mary's County; public safety and rescue, law enforcement and fisheries enforcement for area waters

Northern areas of Southern Maryland also have many Pentagon, Crystal City, Virginia and US Naval Academy related commuters.

Geography
The region's northern boundary passes through Prince George's County and Anne Arundel County, east of Washington. Its eastern boundary is the Chesapeake Bay and its southern and western boundary is the Potomac River, Maryland's boundary with Virginia (and through it, the Northern Neck). The area has dozens of rivers, some major and many minor that are tributaries to the bay and they are linked to hundreds of tidal creeks and coves. These tributaries go from brackish to fresh water and river areas like the middle Patuxent River have extensive marshlands which are waystations for millions of migrating and resident waterfowl. There are also creeks and coves directly on the Chesapeake that have significant marsh and waterfowl populations. The area is also known for osprey (sea hawks) and bald eagles that often make enormous nests on pilings in the waterways.

The Chesapeake Bay is a defining feature of the region, anywhere from 10 to 30 miles across and hundreds of miles long with a few dozen Islands, it is the largest estuary in North America. It is home to hundreds of fish species, Maryland Blue Crabs, oysters, and millions of waterfowl. The Bay is subject to dangerous summer storms, including occasional hurricanes and also dangerous undertow currents (locally called "rips") in or upriver from the mouths of some Southern Maryland tributaries where they empty into the Bay. Although called "rips" in Southern Maryland, they do not pull swimmers along the water surface like ocean rips, but instead can pull people straight down underwater more than 40 feet. Victims have included river sandbar waders (often recreational crabbers), or people swimming off of boats who are swept away and then under by these currents. As recently as the 1970s, the Chesapeake Bay would freeze over in the winter, but this is now an extremely rare occurance.

Rare minor to moderate earthquakes affect the region, but these events happen many decades apart. Micro earthquakes, that are mostly undetectable to humans without special equipment, happen very frequently in the area.

The majority of Southern Maryland soils are mixed with various amounts of Marlboro Clay, a type that was first scientifically named in Upper Marlboro and which is only found in Southern Maryland. The word "Marl" in "Marlboro" means "clay", an important resource for pottery and tobacco pipe-making early settlers and Native Americans. Marlboro Clay comes in both grey and red varieties, although when purified and baked, the grey variety would result in the trademark bone white tobacco pipes of Southern Maryland.

Food and cuisine
Seafood is most popular among Southern Marylanders, given the region's location along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Both steamed blue crabs and crab cakes are considered Southern Maryland delicacies due to the large amount of harvesting of blue crabs from the bay. So is cream of crab soup. All are frequently dusted with Marylands traditional spice mix, Old Bay Seasoning.

Also popular are oysters, which are still widely available although they were once fished from the bay and it's tidal tributaries in greater numbers, and are served either fried, raw, or stuffed. "Rockfish", the Maryland word for striped bass, is considered the most prized fish dish in Southern Maryland. Bluefish are also a popular gamefish. Catfish are a favorite among those who fish the brackish and freshwater reaches of the Chesapeakes tributaries such as the Patuxent River.

Perhaps the most notable food dish originating from Southern Maryland is stuffed ham, which includes cabbage, kale, onions, spices and seasonings that are chopped and mixed, then stuffed into deep slits slashed in a whole, corned ham. An original Southern Maryland fast food is the Poorboy (also "Po Boy") sub or sandwich. These can still be found in rural eateries. Amish food is very popular, including everything from pulled Amish barbecued pork to fried chicken and potato wedges, German cakes, fudge and fruit preserves, and is sold in busy markets in Charlotte Hall and Upper Marlboro. Hunting is very popular in the region and baked squirrel is a local delicacy for some. So is Canadian goose, Mallard duck, venison (White tailed deer meat), pheasant and wild turkey.

Towns and communities
Towns and places in Southern Maryland include:

Anne Arundel County:
 * Bristol
 * Deale
 * Lothian
 * Shady Side
 * Tracys Landing
 * Waysons Corner

Calvert County:
 * Calvert Beach
 * Chesapeake Beach
 * Dares Beach
 * Dunkirk
 * Huntingtown
 * Long Beach
 * Lower Marlboro
 * Lusby
 * North Beach
 * Owings
 * Prince Frederick (county seat)
 * Port Republic
 * Saint Leonard
 * Solomons
 * Sunderland

Charles County: Prince George's County:
 * Bel Alton
 * Bryans Road
 * Bryantown
 * Cobb Island
 * Dentsville
 * Indian Head
 * Hughesville
 * La Plata (county seat)
 * Nanjemoy
 * Pomfret
 * Port Tobacco
 * Potomac Heights
 * St. Charles
 * Waldorf
 * White Plains
 * Accokeek
 * Aquasco
 * Baden
 * Brandywine
 * Camp Springs
 * Cheltenham
 * Clinton
 * Croom
 * Eagle Harbor
 * Friendly
 * Forestville
 * Fort Washington
 * Piscataway
 * Rosaryville
 * Surrattsville
 * Upper Marlboro (county seat)
 * Marlton
 * Morningside
 * Queensland

St. Mary's County:
 * Abell
 * California
 * Charlotte Hall
 * Chaptico
 * Coltons Point
 * Dameron, Maryland
 * Hollywood
 * Leonardtown (county seat)
 * Lexington Park
 * Loveville
 * Mechanicsville
 * Morganza
 * Ridge
 * Scotland
 * St. Inigoes
 * St. Mary's City

Sports
Many residents also identify with national sports teams in Washington DC or Baltimore.

Colleges
Colleges in Southern Maryland include:
 * The College of Southern Maryland, a 2 year community college with campuses in Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's counties
 * St. Mary's College of Maryland, in St. Mary's County - a 4 year public honors college with some graduate school offerings.

Notable Southern Marylanders

 * Rep. Steny Hoyer member of the Democratic Party, House Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, (used to be House Minority Whip) represents southern Maryland as the representative for Maryland's 5th congressional district. He lives in Mechanicsville.
 * Jerome Adams, Surgeon General of the United States, was born in Mechanicsville and graduated from Chopticon High School.
 * Two former first ladies hail from southern Maryland: Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, and Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor, wife of Zachary Taylor.
 * Co-discover of the North Pole, Matthew Henson and Captain Raphael Semmes of the CSS Alabama were born near Nanjemoy, Charles County. Prominent revolutionary war statesmen John Hanson, Thomas Stone, and General Smallwood were from Charles County. Dr. Samuel Mudd, convicted of conspiracy to murder in the Abraham Lincoln assassination, was also a native of Charles County.
 * Television journalists Ted Koppel, Judy Woodruff, Al Hunt, newspapermen Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, and weatherman Doug Hill all have houses in St. Mary's County.
 * Theoretical ecologist Dr. Robert Ulanowicz lived in Calvert County prior to his retirement in 2008 with Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, where he was a member of the faculty.
 * Roger B. Taney, the Chief Justice of the United States who presided over the Dred Scott decision, was born in Calvert County near Prince Frederick.
 * Former Comptroller of Maryland Louis L. Goldstein lived in Calvert County. A portion of MD 2/MD 4 in Calvert County was renamed in his honor after his death.
 * Arthur Storer, first astronomer in the American colonies and the original namesake for Halley's Comet, lived the latter part of his life in Calvert County. A planetarium in Prince Frederick bears his name.
 * Thomas Johnson, the first elected governor of Maryland and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge connecting Calvert and St. Mary's counties was named in his honor.
 * Television and film screenwriter and producer Alfred Gough hails from Leonardtown in St. Mary's County.
 * Former Maryland State Senator and Patuxent River advocate Bernie Fowler lives in Calvert County. Every year, in Broomes Island Fowler will hold a "wade-in" with other public officials to help determine the clarity levels of the Patuxent.
 * Singer Christina Milian once lived in Waldorf.
 * Joel and Benji Madden from the band Good Charlotte grew up in Waldorf.
 * Turkey Tayac, Piscataway tribal leader and herbal medicine man
 * Robert Stethem, murder victim during hijacking of TWA Flight 847 was from Pinefield, the northern section of Waldorf
 * Senator and astronaut John Glenn trained at Patuxent River Naval Air Station many years ago, as did Alan Shepard and other future astronauts.
 * Dashiell Hammett, author of hard-boiled detective novels (creator of the "Maltese Falcon" and "The Thin Man") and short stories, and a screenplay writer, was born in St. Mary's County.
 * Danny Gatton, guitarist, resided in Accokeek and Newburg.
 * Eva Cassidy, interpretive vocalist and guitarist, lived in Oxon Hill and Bowie.
 * Link Wray, pioneering rock guitarist, lived in Accokeek.
 * professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall was born in St. Mary's County.