On The Third Hand

Cooter clash is nothing but a senseless name game

The word “cooter” is well-known slang for “turtle.” The word means turtle in Florida. It means turtle across the South, for that matter.

The town of Allendale, S.C., holds an annual Spring Cooter Fest.

There’s also a Cooter, Mo.

A character in the old TV show Dukes of Hazzard was named Cooter. The actor who played him even got elected to Congress.

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On July 19, our learned editor of editorials in Citrus County, Greg Hamilton, wrote a column in which he pointed out that the word “cooter” also is a slang term, albeit less commonly used, for a key part of the female anatomy. It was not overly salacious; he just thought it was worth mentioning so that nobody got surprised later.

But this revelation set off shock waves among the innocent-minded of Inverness. As with towns and cities everywhere, there were already some folks unhappy with City Hall. They used this new scandal (Cootergate?) to blast the city’s leadership.

These critics asked, with perhaps a hint of crocodile tears: How could Inverness be so demeaning to women, so insensitive? Were they trying to make Inverness a target of ridicule?

Read on. The upshot is that they are holding their Cooter festival, under that name. Good for them.