Barry in The New Haven Register

[Grant Barrett]

Barry also had a letter in the Austin American-Statesman January 29th:

Q: Is the chocolate chip muffin the Texas state muffin? Wikipedia
says so, but I could find no documentation. I e-mailed my state
representative and got no response. (Is there some secret code to get
a response from an elected public servant?) I'm a Texas food
historian, and I like to be accurate.

-- Barry Popik

A: Not according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission,
keeper of the list of official state symbols ( www.tsl.state.tx.us/
ref/abouttx/symbols.html ). State symbols are designated by the
Legislature.

Food items are on the list (state dish: chili; state snack: tortilla
chips and salsa) but not muffins. Texas has official pastries:
sopaipilla and strudel.

Wikipedia has its limitations and is incorrect on more than muffins.
For example, when I checked, the Wikipedia list of Texas symbols had
the state sport as football. It's actually rodeo.

Grant Barrett
Double-Tongued Dictionary
http://www.doubletongued.org/
editor at doubletongued.org

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