OFFICIAL STATE THIS AND THATS

WHAT WITH OUR STATES CONTENDING WITH EXTREMELY SERIOUS ISSUES (women’s rights, voting rights, Trump candidacies verses felony counts, etc., etc.), I’m not sure I find comfort in state governments taking time to name official this and thats. On the other hand, I had fun with my favorite State songs, so why not animals, vegetables, or minerals? 

Here’s a selection prompted by a recent Travel Quiz. See also Wikipedia compilations of “Lists of United States State Symbols.” 

Oklahoma Vegetable. Travel Quiz notes, “As Oklahoma already had a State fruit (strawberry), watermelon was instead named the official State vegetable in 2007. Legislators said watermelon could also be considered a vegetable as a member of the cucumber family.”

Image by Prathyush Thomas from Wikipedia. 

Indeed, I looked it up: Wikipedia says, “Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family.” Who woulda guessed? 

And talk about legislative epicureanism: Oklahoma named the ribeye as its State steak. Me? I would have named the file mignon, black and blue.   

Madison, Wisconsin, Bird. Cities get into the action as well, and my favorite is the Official Bird of Madison, Wisconsin: the plastic flamingo named in 2015. Travel Quiz recounts that this originated “from a 1979 prank at the University of Wisconsin,” which certainly calls for more research. 

Image by iStock from daily.jstor.org.

The website visitwisconsin.com offers details: “In the fall of 1979, Madison was the site of the largest known migration of plastic flamingos in recorded history. On September 4, University of Wisconsin students and staff trudged their way to class and were stunned to see that more than 1,000 plastic flamingos had descended upon the iconic Bascom Hill in the wee hours of the morning. A prank had been pulled and a legend born.”

Louisiana Bird. Louisiana gave us the real bird in 1966: the pelican. Which, of course, reminds me of a poem which turns out to be not Ogden Nash’s: “A wonderful bird is the pelican./ His bill can hold more than his belican./ He can hold in his beak/ Enough food for a week,/ But I’m damned if I see how the helican.”

Thanks, Lucile Bayon Hume, for identifying Dixon Lanier Merritt, editor of The Tennessean, as author of this limerick.

Tennessee Beverage. Speaking of Tennessee, I was surprised to learn from Travel Quiz that this State’s Official beverage is milk. Gee, not bourbon? 

Grain & Vine says, “Tennessee whiskey differs only slightly from bourbon. It is a sour mash whiskey that is filtered through sugar maple charcoal prior to aging. This technique is known as the Lincoln County Process.”

Missouri Dessert. “In 2008,” Travel Quiz notes, “the Missouri State legislature named the ice cream cone as its official state dessert. This designation came 104 years after the treat debuted at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.”

Image by I, ElinorD from Wikipedia. 

This reminds me of watching Meet Me in St. Louis on a tiny TV screen in a charming hotel in Aying, Bavaria, home to one of my favorite beverages, Aying Bräu-Weisse.  

South Carolina Opera. Well warranted, the Official State Opera of South Carolina is Porgy and Bess. It depicts African Americans living in Catfish Row, what Wikipedia calls “a fictitious large Black tenement based on Cabbage Row, on the waterfront of Charleston, South Carolina.”  

The Met’s 2019-2020 production of Porgy and Bess. Image from artsjournal.com. 

Gee, along these lines I wonder if Louisiana might adopt Manon Lescaut as its Official State Opera, what with Puccini having set its Act IV in a Louisiana desert. First, though, the legislature would have to find a desert there.  

West Virginia Rock. Falling perhaps a bit behind the times, bituminous coal was named West Virginia’s Official State Rock in 2009. Kinda like naming minstrel an Official State Musical Genre. 

A Bunch of Fossils. Being extinct hasn’t hurt the wooly mammoth’s fame: Alaska, Arizona, Nebraska, and Vermont have it as their official State fossils.

Wooly mammoth image from National Park Service.

Utah Snack. Travel Quiz says, “In 2001, the Utah State Legislature voted Jell-O as the official state snack.” According to Salt Lake Magazine, “Utah is famously known for its per capita consumption of Jell-O…. But apart from Utahns’ hearty consumption of Jell-O, the roots of the connection are shrouded.”

The magazine offers a theory: “The main appeal of Jell-O lies in its famous 1964 slogan [“There’s always room for Jell-O!”], one of the most honest slogans in the history of huckstering. Jell-O is light, goes down effortlessly and has a pleasant (but not sinfully pleasant) taste. It is not healthy; neither is it unhealthy. It just is. And it’s cheap.”

“In six delicious flavors,” as Jack Benny’s sidekick Don Wilson would say, “strawberry, raspberry, cherry, orange, lemon, and lime.” Extra points for citing three of these among States’ favorite fruits. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024