I really need to get over to the State House more

A colleague laments that she missed this debate over in the Senate today. I feel the same. Note the boldfaced part:

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. South Carolina legislators gave the lowly collard green its due Tuesday when the Senate agreed to make it the official state leafy vegetable.

Always washed, frequently boiled and traditionally a charm for wealth in the New Year first put on Southern tables by slaves, the collard green would join dozens of other “official” things the state recognizes.

For instance, milk is the state’s official beverage and state-grown tea is the state’s official hospitality beverage. The Carolina wolf spider is the state’s official spider and the bottlenose dolphin is the state’s official mammal.

The 30-12 vote showed there were collard green doubters.

Sen. Greg Ryberg, an Aiken Republican and Wisconsin transplant, wondered if there was competition.

Sen. Larry Martin, a Pickens Republican, defended the choice. “We all know the popularity of the collard,” Martin said.

“What about the green bean?” Ryberg asked in a reference to past efforts to put money into a green bean museum.

“The green bean’s not leafy,” Martin said flatly. “This is very specialized.”

I’d like to have been there for that.

11 thoughts on “I really need to get over to the State House more

  1. Steven Davis

    Our tax dollars at “work”. And people wonder why we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel in damn near everything. Look at our leadership.

  2. Doug Ross

    Maybe there should be a rule that there are no per diems or expenses paid for any days where legislators spend time on this b.s.

    That would end the practice in a hurry.

    The people of South Carolina continue to be duped by those in power who say “Lookit that Haley gal over there!”

  3. Brad

    Actually, bud, I think it was tongue-in-cheek on Ryberg’s part. It was his way, I think, of taking a slap at the old bean museum idea…

  4. Tim

    Eye on the ball, folks. This is harmless, and probably encourages some school kids to write their representative. Me, I would do one of these every year just for educational purposes. Now, all the fussin’ over this, and how many of you really know about any of the other 800+ Senate bills or 4000+House Bills? Most are innocuous resolutions that affect 1 person, oh, a few new interchanges named for that 1 person, and occasional torpedos the do real damage or occasional quiet good. But highlight a vegetable and folks have a meltdown.

  5. Scout

    Yeah I’ve heard of a few other ones like the one to block South Carolina from adopting the common core standards (Thanks, Mike Fair)….what on Earth is that about?

  6. Karen McLeod

    Personally, I think that we should name kudzu as our state plant. We have so much of it. Yes, I know that it came from elsewhere, but so did we.

  7. Juan Caruso

    Only one thing really interests me about such a pathetic waste of time. Did Vincent Sheheen protesr a pathetic waste of taxpayer dollars during a fiscal crisis, or did he cast his own vote like the other good ol’ boys?

Comments are closed.