The story has come down to us that John Hancock signed his name so big on the Declaration of Independence "so that King George can read that." Even though it's letting facts get in the way of a good story, that never happened.
Hancock did sign the Declaration, and he did it sign it that big. After all, we have the documentation to prove it. But he didn't sign it in front of a wh
ole lot of other revolutionaries, as the famous Trumbull painting would have us believe, and he didn't sign it so big as an incentive for others to follow suit. Rather, his signature was as large as his life – which was large indeed.
Hancock was rich at a relatively young age – 26, to be exact. He inherited the fortune of a rich uncle and continued in his uncle's footsteps, as a merchant. He made lots and lots of money on shipping, both legal and illegal.
He chose to spend a lot of that money on causes dear to the hearts of Sam Adams, John Adams, and other American colonists looking to split from Mother England. Hancock it was who played a behind-the-scenes role in the Boston Tea Party and the Stamp Act Congress, which ultimately got the Stamp Act repealed.
A member of the Boston Assembly, Hancock was a delegate to the Continental Congress, the body that eventually approved of the Declaration. Hancock was so well respected that he was named president of the Continental Congress, which was ultimately how he came to be presented with the Declaration of Independence for signing.
And sign he did, but on a blank piece of parchment and in front of a minimal audience. The other men who signed the famous document did so in later days, over time.
We historians often get so wrapped up in trying to discover the causes of things and the motivations of people that we lose sight of the simple fact that in time, most things come out of the woodwork. Such is the case with crop circles.
Now, I'm not exactly the kind of person who lies awake at night and wonders what causes crop circles. I have been curious from time to time but never seen one and sort of figured that if the explanation was anything consistent at all, it was probably nationally occurring results of freaky weather patterns or one-of-a-kind atmospheric conditions or something scientific like that. I know that many people that alien life forms are making these circles; I am not one of those people.
Now, it turns out, we have proof of what causes crop circles. That proof is wallabies.
Yep, those kangaroo-looking things found in Australia are the cause of the world's crop circle infestation. Turns out the lovable creatures get high on opium and start jumping around in circles, mowing down crops in their wake. It's too early to tell at this point exactly how much opium is needed in order to send these marsupials over the opiate edge and into crop-spinning condition, but scientists Down Under have definitely confirmed this behavior by, of all things, witnessing it.
What does this have to do with crop circles in the United Kingdom and the United States and other countries that just happen to be far away from Australia? Good question. One thing at a
time. For now, all we know for certain is that Tasmania, which is home to much of the world's natural opium production, has this kind of thing happening more than occasionally. (They've seen it happen with deer and sheep as well.) What we've still to find out is what kind of mathematical degrees those animals have, since some of those crop circles are darn near perfect spheres and other shapes. Still, you have to start somewhere.
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