(grunts) MAN: Shh.
WOMAN: His first words.
NARRATOR: In 2005, Washington welcomed a newcomer to town.
ROXANNE: Understand how important it was to the zoo after all these years, after all the breeding fails.
JOSE: The panda was a very big thing, a huge thing.
It's been part of the DNA of Washington.
ROXANNE: There are certain moments where everybody in Washington can come together.
It was kind of like we finally got a baby panda, and look how unbelievably cute he was.
DAN: You don't even have to have kids to feel that way.
You could find the most grizzled, cynical person and show them a picture of the baby panda, and they're like, "Oh, that's pretty cute."
NARRATOR: While zookeepers kept watch over the new panda, attention turned to the cub's name.
ROXANNE: The official naming of a panda doesn't happen for 100 days, so D.C. decided that while we were waiting, we would pick the name that we liked, and the name we liked was Butterstick.
AMANDA: When the new baby was born, they said he's about the size of a stick of butter, and so my friends Catherine and Tommy named him Butterstick and put up a "DCist" post about it, and it took off like wildfire.
ROXANNE: It was a dumb name, and it was also really cute.
AMANDA: We had, like, Butterstick happy hours, where everyone wore black and white and yellow.
ANDREA: You had bloggers who didn't think the panda should be named anything but Butterstick, but that's not the way it works.
NARRATOR: The zoo let the public weigh in on the new name.
ANDREA: It got so serious that the bloggers who wanted Butterstick even tried to hack the poll numbers.
AMANDA: We may have rigged the poll with some very minor hacking.
NARRATOR: After 100 days, the zoo announced the winner.
MAN: Tai Shan!
ANDREA: The name means peaceful mountain, so how about that?
After a tumultuous year, another thing we could smile about.
NARRATOR: For more clips, and to watch the full program visit
