The official state widget

It's official: Texas has icons galore

The state bird? OK, that's an easy one, the mockingbird. The state flower? The bluebonnet, of course. But what about the state flower song? Or the state dinosaur? Those may have been left out of your elementary education.

Each legislative session, constituents lobby their lawmakers to file resolutions creating new state symbols everything fromas varied as the state pastry to and the state folk dance.

This year, resolutions already have been debated to make the chuck wagon the official vehicle, the Dutch oven the official cooking implement and the purple sage the official native shrub. Why the native shrub, you ask? Well, the crape myrtle, the original state shrub since 1997, isn't from Texas.

"It's kind of like we're going to have the state brick and the state ant, and we really probably need to vet those a little bit better," said Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, a co-sponsor of the chuck-wagon resolution.

While the Dutch oven and chuck wagon have been passed by the Senate, and the purple sage has been approved by the House, many others are still waiting to be debated.

To become official, the legislation must pass through both chambers and be signed by the governor.

That's too much work. I'm going to skip the middleman, cut to the chase, and declare this site to be the Official Blog of the State of Texas. Anyone else who wants to do as well this should feel free. I don't mind sharing.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on May 01, 2005 to The great state of Texas | TrackBack