Happy Birthday TEXAS! I wish I had remembered today was Texas Independence day and I would've extended by trip until today. Loved the letter from Bum and even though I live in Minnesota now I do have a Texas hanging in my living room and always tell people I'm from Texas. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bbcrSu4BlQM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bbcrSu4BlQM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Including Juan Abamillo*, Juan A. Badillo*, Juan Seguin, Andres Nava* and Lorenzo de Zavala. * died at the Alamo.
Nice post, futants. Bum Phillips is just about as "Texan" as it gets: football coach at every level and (almost) all of in the state, then a rancher for the rest of his life. I'll take him over Kinky Friedman any damn day of the week. My only concern is that with all the "Andy Rooney" "George Carlin" and "Dennis Miller" emails, complaining about "parasites" from Katrina or "having to press one for English," I'm a little nervous this isn't acutally from him. Another thing: I've always thought of Texas independence day as April 21st, even though that's actually just San Jacinto Day. Maybe it's cuz Baytown is so close to the Monument, or because of the righteous Sesquicentennial celebration I attended there in second grade: first ever ride on a Metro bus, and my first brush with a celebrity, a rather fetching Ms. Felicia Jeter.
Enough of a hero for me. Texas has been deceptively important to the tech industry (invented the handheld calculator at TI and portable PC at Compaq). Dell helped re-invent the business model for computer manufacturing and built the biggest brand in the industry. Nice to be known for something other than oil and gas.
I've seen that posting by "Bum Phillips" for years, but could never validate he really did it. I've seen stuff where it's attributed to someone else, but regardless, it's a pretty cool read.
We were and are known for other things... long before we were known for computers... Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey helped put Houston and Texas on the medical map!
can't say that I care.. not much of a fan of the overall state.. though I never visited Austin or Dallas(simply passed through).. I did spend a good portion of my life in it.. practically raised there.. and I haven't even one fond memory that I can recall.. of any of it.. but for the Astros, the Rockets.. and the food.. Happy Birthday..
Not as bad as the late 1840's. Bye bye, California; hello US troops in Mexico City. Interesting how we just kinda moved in and managed to take over in the course of 20-30 years; very Afrikaaner of us.
Ouch! I truly feel sorry for you. Late to the birthday party, but since I have an ancestor's name on the San Jacinto monument, I'll forgive myself. Hail Texas! Hell yes!!
