Sounds like you and your friends’ hat-to-cattle balance are in good Qi, as probably whatever are the other three elements that comprise Texan Feng Shui.
Seconded. Don’t come here now…it’s been hovering around 100 degrees and 80 percent humidity for a week.
Come in the fall and I’ll buy you a beer. Hell, maybe you’ll even be the catalyst for a long-overdue Houston DopeFest.
I completely maintain that I have not been whooshed. This person was very intent on defending Texas on every level. That movie quote is imitating life.
“i have a comment about texas-shaped anything. i’m sorry if it bothers you, but texas really is the only state with such an interesting shape. a square is not that interesting. california has an alright shape, and florida too, but texas looks as if the borders were almost designed to be pretty. and if you can show me a prettily shaped state that doesn’t sell products shaped like the state, then i’ll show you a state that’s missing out on some money.” From here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=97892&page=2&pp=50
Seriously, there are people in the Pit who have black souls. I wish I were kidding.
I remember a headline from the Onion: “Harvard-educated Texan Unsure About Which To Mention First.”
Granted, I’ve only been to Austin, but I like the state a lot. It’s got a certain moxie to it you don’t see in other places. I’m friends with two Texans, and neither of them make a huge deal of it, nor do either of them live there anymore. But since it’s the only state that was once its own country, I’m not surprised they might be a little more proud than other places.
That said, I have no intention of visiting Houston anytime soon. I hear it’s miserable.
But I maintain that my home state of Michigan has a much better shape. 
I could be wrong, but I actually think you two are just saying the same thing in different ways. I’m sure if I asked Clothy if Texas had problems, he’d say something like, sure Texas has problems, just like any other state. You know, crime, infrastructure problems, whatever. But that doesn’t mean there is something fundamentally wrong with the state.
I also live in Texas. Sure Texas has problems. But for the most part, I don’t think those problems are fundamentally different from the issues that face every other state in the US.
The #1 problem right now is the fact that it’s too fucking hot. God damn it, it’s hot. A high of 104 yesterday, and it’s showing 103 right now. That’s about 40C. Fuck.
The ol’ “mitten and fragment” silhouette. 
Honestly, I really like Texas. I wasn’t born here, and I stay here by choice. Sure, there are things I find comical about my adoptive state, and other things that I find genuinely negative about it, but in general, Texas (Houston at least) has defied my expectations and become a good home for me.
Vermont, California, and Hawaii might have a bone to pick with you.
But I see Wyoming-shaped things for sale all the time.
Ha! Sounds like a chilly day to me. (Still like it better here than in Texas, though. 
)
Indeed. And Hawaii was even a kingdom, to boot.
Hmmm, are we talkin’ a standard mid-size or a full quadcab?
What’s your point? That Texans routinely go around nabbing their newborns? Or that the security guards in Texas routinely go around tasing people holding children? Somehow all of Texas and each Texan individually should be judged by and held accountable for the misguided actions of a couple of people?
Whatever. :rolleyes:
Mid-size? What are you, a girl?
The thunder & lightning early this AM signalled a change in the weather. Something’s headed in from the Gulf. No problem this far inland. Unless you live in one of the areas that tend to flood.
At least it will break the heat wave.
And that, pardners, is what we call “lookin’ on the bright side.” 
Ya’ll down in Houston better not hog all the rain. We need some up this way.
The corollary to this is that many (but by no means all) Harvard grads & Texans manage to volunteer their status within the first 2 minutes of meeting them, regardless of whether it’s been asked or if it’s relevant to the conversation. Also, many Harvard grads & Texans consider that to be the defining fact of their lives. I’ve seen resumes from 40+ year old jobseekers who put their 20 year old Harvard degree at the top of their resume. No other university or state engenders such feelings in its graduates/residents.
Sure, but you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I usually just come straight out and share my state identity or my collegiate affiliation when I’m asked or it’s relevant. Some of my peers have this annoying habit of “…well, I went to school in Boston…” instead of saying it straight out. My experience with Harvard folks is that it’s typically hard to get it out of them compared to most other people. Texans, again, depending on where you live, may give signals that they are from there, but what do people almost always talk about in the first few minutes of meeting? Weather and where you’re from. Texas figures prominently in such a conversation.
There’s nothing wrong with announcing that you’re a Ball State grad, or you’re from Minnesota. And those aspects of identity may well be defining moments of peoples’ lives. I think if people would take the approach of being open-minded about where folks are from (statewise and schoolwise) it wouldn’t be an issue as much.
I’m just saying that this happened in Texas. Draw your own conclusions.