'It's our motto.' 'What's a motto?' 'Nothing. What's a motto with you?'

Mottos are sorta stupid -- it's like having a state bird (which is to say, who really cares). But Brooklyn's motto is really stupid: "Believe the Hype" (as seen on the Kosciuszko Bridge on the BQE).

After a little online sleuthing this morning, I found that this isn't actually Brooklyn's motto, but rather one of it's many "welcome" phrases. Sadly, it's not the worst of the bunch: "Like no Other Place in the World" is apparently on the Pulaski bridge. Yeah, that phrase really makes me feel like I live in a unique place.

Brooklyn's actual motto is "In Unity there is Strength" -- written as Een Draght Mackt Maght, in old Dutch which is very similar to Afrikaans and (perhaps unfortunately) is also the same motto as Apartheid South Africa.

By the way, my brother has informed me that it is not academically valid to use Wikipedia as a source since it's policed by the general public -- which is to say, the people making updates to Wikipedia, arguably, are people with even more online time-wasting capacity than me...I hope they are smarter. Anyway, if his 7th graders can't use Wikipedia as a source, neither can I.

And the New York state bird is the bluebird.