What is Skypotato?
Skypotato grew out of a joke between me and my coworkers. I have Irish ancestry and my boss at the Museum was born and raised in the United Kingdom. So we joked about how his people always stole from mine. Eventually, I accused the British of stealing the moon from the Irish. But of course the Irish did not know the moon by its modern name, but rather as the Great Skypotato. Here is the story:
Centuries ago, the Great Skypotato provided light for the pale-skinned inhabitants of the Emerald Isle. The light provided by the Great Skypotato allowed the inhabitants to work at night so as not to burn their pale skin during the hot and bright days. The people lived in perfect harmony with the Great Skypotato.
One fateful day, the people from the Metal Island across the great waters came and enslaved the people of the Emerald Isle. They paid little attention to the inhabitants’ need to work at night and forced them to slave away during the daytime. The inhabitants’ skin burned and they soon felt all was lost. They feared the Great Skypotato had forsaken them.
Their Metal Island masters stole the food from the inhabitants, leaving them with only grass and rocks to eat. The Great Skypotato saw this and one day sent its oval shaped potato offspring down to the Emerald Isles so that its inhabitants could eat. For a short time, the inhabitants, though red from the sun, ate the potato and lived in relative comfort. The Metal Island masters, with their rust-colored eyes, notice this comfort and spitefully plotted to remove it. They stole the Great Skypotato’s offspring from the inhabitants and even tried to steal from the Great Skypotato itself.
For years, the inhabitants starved because of the lack of the potatoes. Even in its weakened and now round state, the Great Skypotato continued to give its potato offspring to the children of the Emerald Isles inhabitants. Finally came the day when the inhabitants had gathered enough food so that they could actively resist the Metal Island masters and wait for them to leave.
Years of struggle forced the Metal Island masters off the Emerald Isles and back across the great waters. The inhabitants, now free, once again praise the Great Skypotato and thank it each night as they feast on its given offspring, the potato.
All hail, the Great Skypotato.
