Texas Legislature Attempts to Declare the Hamburger as Official State Sandwich
I'm pretty sure this is a fluff piece, a welcome distraction for Austin newsreaders from the dire budgetary straits the Texas Legislature finds itself in. Author John Kelso certainly treats it as such. His references to the overall silliness of the topic—which I was sure had come from pages of the Onion rather than the Statesman--are tongue-in-cheek and sparse, the author choosing to descend to the argument’s level and discuss the absurdity of the choice of the Hamburger instead of the Brisket Sandwich, rather than the confounding action itself—that is, a state legislature in crisis voting on an official state sandwich. Personally, I wish there was a stronger vein of repulsion and civic outcry in the piece, but activism gets to be a bit droll when everyone is yelling about the budget at once, I suppose. Thusly, articles like this one make it to print or the website.
With this in mind, my main criticism is that the jokes are as campy as Citronella candles, and Mr. Kelso doesn’t seem to care. Whatever living he carves out of the Statesman’s coffers is surely secured by them on a regular basis. The subject matter does ring a distinctly Texas-sounding bell though. How very “Texan” of our legislators to take a little break and finally pin down such an issue.
Kelso does bring up some good points in the context, however. Why Isn’t the brisket sandwich being considered as the chief executive portable meal of our great state or indeed the breakfast taco before 10 a.m.? I would vote for such a resolution, though not at the cost of legislative proceedings.
Kelso gets his jokes across and I’m sure got a chuckle from someone, but at the end of the day I believe this could have been a much more telling and poignant expose into the ridiculous state of our legislature’s focus than it turned out to be.
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