Tuesday, July 5, 2011

If you seek an envious East Coaster...

Ian Crouch had a cute little ditty about state mottos in the New Yorker Book Bench over the weekend. He refers to Fifty and Fifty, a project featuring creative imaginings of the sometimes bizarre mottos the states have adopted. Texas', for instance, is simply "Friendship." (Don't overexert yourselves, guys.) Fifty and Fifty puts a funny spin on the concept, depicting a cowboy and an American Indian pointing, respectively, a gun and an arrow at each other. Dotted lines trace the trajectory of the weapons, forming a heart in the center where they would meet: Friendship.

Crouch, however, gets a little reckless with his commentary:
And some are just silly, like that of Michigan, which even in 1835 must have had a robust chamber of commerce: "Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice," or, "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you."
One can only assume that his dismissive attitude is fueled by the deep resentment that comes from looking about yourself in Maine and seeing, well, Maine.

11 comments:

  1. I don't see any states with more pleasant peninsulas than Michigan. Heck, we have two great ones. Don't even get me started about Florida. It just looks like a wang hanging off the south east of the country.

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  2. Michigan's motto isn't a comparative statement. It simply qualifies the peninsula's of Michigan as pleasant in themselves.

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  3. I was following this project, but was very disappointed with the MI version... so disappointed that I didn't want to blog about it here. Some of the other states are great though (N. Carolina, for example).

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  4. He called our motto silly? HE CALLED OUR MOTTO SILLY? You want to know a silly motto....How about New Jersey's? Garden State? Just exactly where is the garden in that state. For the most part it is a shithole*. But I guess shithole state isn't talking up your state. Or if he's from New York...Ever Upward? To what? Blah....

    *Yes yes, I realize that once you get outside of the Newark area, the state is quite nice but still.

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  5. @G$: I kind of like the Michigan one. Simple but elegant.

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  6. Erika: It doesn't have the UP, which is a major demerit in my book...

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  7. I don't believe the UP actually exists. I think it's Area 51 north.

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  8. Ben - I have been to the UP, but not for a few decades. But it's one of our state's most distinctive qualities, so it's a crime in my book not to highlight our double peninsulas.

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