Texas has fireants

Idaho has elk.

Why are we talking about all this other trivial crap? Dutch. (A&M '91).

While in Texas, I found the 212F H2O Magnum Chlorinated WAD to be suitable for fireant en mass. With elk, it is hard to get close enough for a clean kill with aformentioned load. It can be effective on really tough cuts post elk demise, however. WAD = Weapon of Ant Destruction, BTW.

Deep fried pickles?

Well I'm going to Austin in march, where would I go to find some, any little diner?

This is for those of you that are Texans either by birth or by choice. It is not funny, but Texas Braggin' is so cliche this seems the appropriate spot to post it.

TEXAS

When you're from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like, "Do you
have any cows?" "Do you have horses?" "Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?"
They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They watched Dallas.

Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me just for
a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red
River and the Rio Grande, is as much a part of you as anything ever will be.
As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know what it is --
it's Texas. Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of
Texas in the dirt and he'll know what it is. What happens if I show you a
picture of any other state? You might get it maybe after a second or two,
but who else would? And even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in
you?

In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes
just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in
a pickup. There is some bit of Texas in everyone. Did you ever hear anyone
in a bar go, "Wow...so you're from Iowa? Cool, tell me about it?" Do you
know why? Because there's no place like Texas.

If you travel the USA, especially since 9/11, you see a lot of American
flags. But in no other state do you see as many state flags as you do in
Texas - the pride that Texans have in their state is matched only by their
pride in America.

Texas has existed under the flags of more nations than any other state:
Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, The Confederate States of
America, and The United States of America.

Our capitol is the largest of all state capitol buildings, is second in
total size only to the National Capitol in Washington, D.C., and in fact is
seven feet taller than its Federal counterpart.

The Congressional bill annexing The Republic of Texas stipulated that we
could divide into five states at any time we want to. Although that law
appears to conflict with Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, it
has never been contested. Plenty of Northern states, who opposed annexing
Texas due to its position on slavery, had the opportunity to do so at the
time, but didn't.

Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing thousands
of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out
and save themselves, but stayed instead to fight and die for the cause of
freedom. We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie
and Crockett, and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand
and they decided to cross it and be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie
himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.

Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.

Texas is Juneteenth, San Jacinto Day, and Texas Independence Day.

Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest.

Texas is breathtaking mountains in the Big Bend.

Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields in the Texas Hill
Country.

Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.

Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.

Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.

Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, The American Airlines Center,
Jones Hall, Gruene Hall, Billy Bob's Texas, Gilley's, The Ballpark in
Arlington, Texas Stadium, and the Astrodome.

Texas is larger-than-life legends like Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon
Jennings, Bob Wills, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, ZZ Top, A.J Foyt, Ben
Hogan, Byron Nelson, Gordon Wood, Doak Walker, Tom Landry, Tex Schramm,
Darrell Royal, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sid Richardson,
Denton Cooley, Michael DeBakey, Judge Roy Bean, lawmen of the Texas Rangers,
Sam Rayburn, Lyndon B. Johnson, George Bush, and George W. Bush.

Texas is great people doing great things to make great companies -- like the
personal computers of Dell and Compaq, the commercialization of the
transistor and the invention of the integrated circuit at Texas Instruments,
the domination of the air travel business by American Airlines, the design
and construction of the world's most powerful warplanes at Lockheed Martin
Aerospace, and the staff of the world's largest medical complex, the Texas
Medical Center in Houston, who see 125,000 patients each day. Texas, by
itself, is the world's fifth-largest producer of petroleum, and the nation's
largest producer of natural gas. With the most farms and the most farmland
in the USA, Texas produces more sheep, cattle, and cotton than any other
state. If Texas were a nation, it would rank eighth in the world in GNP,
second in the world in GNP per capita, and its economy would be three times
the size of Russia's.

Texas is NASA. The first word spoken by a man from the Moon was, "Houston."

Texas is skies blackened with doves, geese, and ducks, fields full of deer,
quail, turkey, and pheasant, and lakes like Lake Fork full of world record
bass.

Texas is a place where cities shut down to watch the local High School
Football game on Friday nights, the Cowboys or Texans on Monday Night
Football, T-OU Weekend, and the Night In Old San Antonio River Parade.

Texas is Aggies, Red Raiders, Horned Frogs, Mustangs, Bears, Owls, and
Longhorns.

Texas is ocean beaches and mountains, deserts and lakes and rivers, forests
and prairies, one-horse towns and modern cities, urban gridlock and lonely
backroads, "ozone alerts" and night skies so clear you can't count all the
stars.

Texas is big! It's as large as all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and North Carolina combined. Forty-one of Texas's 254 counties are
each larger than Rhode Island. Texas has more lakes than Minnesota.
Franklin Mountains State Park is the largest urban park in the nation,
covering some 37 square miles, all within the city limits of El Paso. If you
could average 50MPH, and could travel Texas's 300,000 miles of public roads
without back-tracking, it would take you almost seven years of continuous
driving. It's farther from Brownsville to the top of the Panhandle than it
is from there to Canada; it's farther from El Paso to Texas's Eastern border
than it is from that border to the Atlantic, or from El Paso to the Pacific.
Wherever you're going, once you leave Texas, you're half-way there.

Texas even has its own power grid!

If it isn't in Texas, you don't need it. No one does anything bigger or
better than it's done in Texas.

Texas is friendly people -- the state's name came from an Indian word for
friends, the state's motto is "Friendship," and signs all along the nation's
largest highway system advise motorists to "Drive Friendly."

Say "Howdy!" to someone today.

NO I AIN'T FROM AROUND THERE.... SO WHAT IS IN YOUR CHILI?? NO TOMATOES OR BEANS? EDUCATE ME PLEASE. I LOVED THAT ASS KICKIN TEXAS SH!T. VERY FUNNY.. AND PROLLY MORE TRUE THAN US IOWANS REALIZE.



THE 2ND AMENDMENT PROTECTS US ALL.....

Hmmm, the chili I make DOES have tomato in it.

What I found while in Texas was that Texas chile is composed mainly of two components, chiles, and meat. If you must add more vegetables, onions are allowed in some places, but not tomatoes nor beans. Beans are used fresh cooked or as refritos but not in real chile. The variations in real chile come from differences in the chile used, or the mix of chiles used, the type of meat and cut of meat, and in some cases, the fluid added to the chile, which can be beer, DOSXX or Lonestar, and can range from beer thru most of the nonsweet drinks, to Tequila. Water would be real iffy. Cold beer is usually reserved as a side dish. Anything else would be seasoning or flavorings, added sparingly for effect. Done correctly, delicious and flavorful, making the canned stuff in the store fit only for the dog, if you can get a Texas dog to eat it. BTW, when hot peppers are a normal part of your diet, you don't notice the heat but you do notice the flavor. Charcoal (mesquite) roasted jalapenos, best side dish around, next to the beer. The only mistake that some Texans will admit to is joining the Union, but most are resigned to it!

Texas chili is great on its own, but usually it is just a side dish to the main course -- Beer!

"If I owned Texas and Hell I would rent out Texas and live in Hell". General William Tecumseh Sherman. By the way, if you want to visit a truly impressive state, go to Alaska......

I've lived in both states, Alaska is great, no doubt. One thing I never heard while living there, nor since, was "Great Alaskan Chile". Now, crab, thats another story, as is salmon, but another one I have never heard is "great Alaskan Tequila". Ah, the sacrifices we have to make, huh?

I've travled a good bit. There is no place like it in the world. It truly is its own country

liled

Hello:
Having just been in Texas a couple of months ago, I gotta ask. How come yo'all go to bed so early? Trying to find a restaurant that stays open past 9 P.M. was impossible. Since my businees there involved late nights, we almost starved to death, except for the size of the portions, when we did get to eat. Who the hell ever invented deep fried pickles?
Grizz

did you get the 'spears' or the 'chips' ?
I prefer the chips, the spears get soggy.

I don't know who thought it up (and I doubt if Texas is the only place that has em) but they are good, aren't they?