Missouri City, TX has a new motto -- "Show Me"

[Barry Popik]

Featured today on AOL is another "Ellen Across America" quiz. Ellen
does this to torture me. I get less sympathy than her dog.
...
I proved that this naval banquet was in 1900 (not 1899), and "show me"
had been current since 1894. Missouri didn't send me a word of thanks,
and the state's website is still wrong.
...
...
http://ellen.aol.com/editorial/the+all-american+state+trivia+quiz
Missouri's state nickname, the "Show Me State" is derived from:
A. An unfortunate fishing incident
B. A really (really) early fan of the movie "Jerry McGuire"
C. The state's picture-book pretty natural landscape
D. A certain stubborn congressman

D ("Correct" answer -- B.P.)
The nickname is ascribed to Rep. Willard Van Diver who, while a member
of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, spoke at an 1899 naval
banquet in Philadelphia. There, he declared, "I come from a country
that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats and frothy
eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, and
you have got to show me.:

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org