The Lone Star state is an old nickname for the second largest of the United States of America, and we're still a bit steamed at Alaska about that. By way of landmass, California runs a close third.
Texas became a state in 1845, and is most historically famous for its cowboys. It's also the state where John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Updated Monday May 9th, 2005: Personally I wish we were most remembered for the fantastic musicians and other artists who have come from Texas, but unfortunately when people think Texas and they're not IN Texas, they generally think about cows and cowboys and although there's still the Fort Worth Stockyards and things like that, Texas is so much more.
Pound Fool wished to point out that, "I think your lone star state writeup would be better with some mention of the flag's lone star.." I do agree with him on this, so here goes: The phrase "lone star" came from the state's official flag, which is red white and blue and includes a single large white star in the middle of a blue background. Single star on the flag means "star alone" which wasn't as cool to say as "lone star."
By the way, the Texas state flag is the only state flag which legally and officially can be flown full mast, even with that of the United States flag of stars and stripes. Most other flags have to be lower on the mast than the national flag. This is predominantly because we in Texas are proud assholes and demanded it when we compromised joining the union back in the 1800s. It's also a reminder to Washington D.C. that if they piss us off enough we'll just secede. Sometimes I wonder why we haven't already. Although if we did, Mexico might kick our accumultive ass.
There's also a brand of beer called "Lone Star" but it kinda sucks, so we don't usually mention it. |
