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BOSTON — <\/span>Fresh off its first-class flight from Glasgow, it received a reception befitting a visiting dignitary: a bagpiper in full regalia playing inside Boston Logan International Airport. Waiting to greet it were diplomats, the governor and Boston\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n The guest of honor? An orange traffic cone.<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s arrival of the \u201cBoston Cone\u201d marked the latest chapter in the city’s unlikely love affair with Scotland\u2019s Tartan Army<\/a>, whose habit of placing traffic cones atop statues during the team’s World Cup<\/a> run last month turned the humble orange cone into one of the tournament\u2019s defining symbols.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to admit, this is probably \u2014 yes, it is \u2014 my first official welcoming ceremony for a traffic cone,\u201d Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in the airport’s Terminal E, before signing her name to the cone. \u201cBut it\u2019s a pretty special one, isn\u2019t it? Because this cone tells the story of what happened this summer. What happened in Boston, what happened in Massachusetts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd special thanks to the Scots for drinking all the beer<\/a>,\u201d she added to laughter. \u201cI do promise you, when you return \u2026 we will never again run out of beer in Massachusetts.\u201d<\/p>\n During Scottish fans\u2019 World Cup visit<\/a>, Boston bars struggled to keep up with the Tartan Army\u2019s thirst, with some running out of beer and scrambling for emergency deliveries. The fans transformed parts of Boston into an unofficial outpost of Scotland, filling downtown with bagpipes, songs and chants while bright orange traffic cones sprouted atop some of the city\u2019s most recognizable landmarks \u2014 from Samuel Adams outside Faneuil Hall to Red Auerbach outside TD Garden, former Mayor Kevin White near Quincy Market and even the beloved Make Way for Ducklings statues in the Public Garden.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are still some traffic cones atop our most important statues,\u201d Boston Mayor Michelle Wu joked Tuesday, recalling how Boston had \u201cunofficially become New Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n The official commemorative cone, decorated with illustrations celebrating Boston and Scotland and the slogan \u201cNo Boston, No Party,\u201d will spend the next week visiting landmarks across Massachusetts to raise money for mental health charities before returning home to Scotland.<\/p>\n The tradition dates to Glasgow, where placing bright orange traffic cones atop public statues began as a late-night prank in the 1980s before evolving into an unofficial symbol of the country\u2019s irreverent humor. The best-known example is the Duke of Wellington statue in the city center, where the cone has become so iconic that repeated efforts to remove it have been met with public opposition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an in-joke that\u2019s gone too far, actually,\u201d one of the cone’s Scottish escorts, Danny Campbell, said, laughing as he stood beside the cone in a kilt. \u201cBut no, it isn\u2019t a joke. This is a metaphor for life.\u201d<\/p>\n Campbell said people can become consumed by \u201cgoing to our jobs and cooking sausages and all the sort of serious stuff that adults have to do\u201d and lose sight of what matters.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what our countrymen represented when they came here,\u201d he said, speaking of Scottish fans’ stay in Boston<\/a>. \u201cThey left stomachs and cheeks sore from laughing, they cleaned up after themselves, they spread joy and these people came together with humor and they built relationships with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just a silly cone,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cIt means love. It means love, and that is the whole point.\u201d<\/p>\n ___ See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n