Texas at a Glance

Texas at a Glance

Capital:                         Austin
Size:                            pretty darn humongous
Population:                      About right
Room to breathe:                 amen!
Room to set off nuclear devices: yep
Nickname:                        The Lone Star State
Major Assets:                    cattle, oil, money, high tech,
                                 elbow room
Incredibly Minor Industries:     Dallas

• is the only state in the USA legally allowed to fly its flag higher than the national flag.
• is by far the largest state in the continental USA.
• knows of no states not in the continental USA.
• is the land of big hats, big hair - and big heads to hold them up.
• is the land of the Big Sky.
• has more desert than most states have state.
• has more woods than most states have state.
• has more prairie than most states have state.
• actually has lots of water, much of it in the form of flash floods.
• has farms and ranches bigger than some states.
• has farms and ranches bigger than most countries.
• will not let you forget it.
• for years had a state treasurer named after, and directly descended from, outlaw Jesse James.
• had enough room, and enough sense, to leave David Koresh alone.
• once busted the Grateful Dead, annoying them so in the process that they now refuse to play there.
• gave us
  • Audie Murphy,
  • Admiral Chester Nimitz,
  • Janis Joplin
  • H. Ross Perot,
  • Jack Kilby (invented the silicon chip at TI),
  • Kings X,
  • Austin Lounge Lizards,
  • Henry Bullock (famous black social studies professor),
  • Lust Control,
  • James Farmer (started CORE),
  • Barbara Jordan,
  • Edgar Winter,
  • Morris Sheppard (introduced legislation paving way for women to vote),
  • Sam Rayburn,
  • Dwight Eisenhower (born in Denison, TX),
  • One Bad Pig,
  • Lyndon Baynes Johnson, and
  • George Herbert Walker Bush.
• was where we lost JFK.
• designated the 7-banded armadillo the State Mascot.
• is home to Roadkills-R-Us, the first products company existing solely in cyberspace.

Last updated: 21 Mar 1994

Copyright 1994, Miles O'Neal, Austin, TX. All rights reserved. Free redistribution of this article is allowed so long as this copyright and the author's name are attached, but all other uses require the author's permission.