Thursday, September 19, 2013

Big, but not the Biggest


Have you heard the phrase "Everything's bigger in Texas"?  Of course you have.  Because the state of Texas has done a great job of marketing it.  As a kid, and even now, I'm annoyed with the whole concept.  I spent four years of my childhood in Alaska, and I developed a lot of pride in our 49th state, and anyone who has lived there knows it's the biggest state in the US.  Others, though, often forget just how big Alaska really is, as it has more than twice the area of Texas.  I'm not the only Alaska defender to be annoyed by Texas' arrogance and bravado when they aren't even the biggest state.  There are several places online where you can see examples of people wanting to put Texas in its place, even if they might have minimized Texas' size slightly compared to the actual size, and some were so desperate to make the point that they actually unnecessarily increased Alaska's size to make the comparison more dramatic.  The fact remains that Alaska is more than twice as big as Texas.

All of this was inspired when today, while in Dallas, I came across a project by the City of Dallas' tourism department to encourage people to take their picture as the I in BIG.  I played along for the sake of having a fun photo, knowing it would give me a chance to make my feelings known on the Alaska/Texas rivalry.

Oh, and you've also heard the phrase "Don't mess with Texas!"  Well, fortunately for Texas, Alaska won't mess with it, because it isn't nice to pick on someone less than half your size.

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