WESTBROOK, Maine — "Floating and turning."
That's the Twitter bio of "IceDisk," or @disk_ice, a parody account for Westbrook's ice disk in the Presumpscot River, the city's latest viral sensation.
The giant, moon-looking sheet of ice, first publicized Monday by the city of Westbrook, has attracted global attention. The Globe called it an "arctic buzzsaw" while the Times questioned if it was an icy landing zone for aliens, a sign of impending doom or just a carousel for ducks.
Before the ice disk there was Wessie, a python supposedly first spotted in June 2016 along the riverbank of the Presumpscot River. Witnesses told police it was "as long as a truck" with a "head the size of a soccer ball." Officers themselves later reported seeing the snake eating a beaver, estimating the serpent's length to be at least 10 feet.
Shed snakeskin discovered in August 2016 would reignite hope the snake was real or still alive, but officials later determined it to be Anaconda skin, possibly planted as a hoax. Then winter arrived. Maine winter.
If it weren't for the Blue Blazes, the snake would likely be the city's mascot. In addition to its own Twitter account, brewery Mast Landing named an IPA after the snake; Portland-based rock band and film production company Drivetrain Productions wrote a folk song titled "The Wessie Song;" and the city hosted "Wessie Fest" in October featuring a former Discovery Channel host. Wessie even participated in an exclusive, sit-down interview with Shannon Moss.
On Wednesday, the ice disk continued to float but had stopped turning. People from all over were coming out to catch a glimpse.
IceDisk's Twitter account had about 30 followers as of late Wednesday night and was already conversing with Wessie P. Thon. It shared an amusing #10YearChallenge post, pondered signing an agent and asked Keith Carson about the weekend's impending storm.
One thing's for sure: the Presumpscot River seems to have a knack for creating these types of things, intentional or not. What's next?