Texas -
This is not one of my typical blog entries. This will be nothing but quotes about this fine state, Texas that I now exist within.

"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans." - John Steinbeck 1962

"Texas history is a varied, tempestuous, and vast as the state itself. Texas yesterday is unbelievable, but no more incredible than Texas today. Today's Texas is exhilarating, exasperating, violent, charming, horrible, delightful, alive."- Edna Ferber, author, 1955.

"If a man’s from Texas, he’ll tell you. If he’s not, why embarrass him by asking?"
-U.S. journalist John Gunther regarding legendary Texas pride in 1970's

"What you Northerners never appreciate..........is that Texas is so big that you can live your life within its limits and never give a damn about what anyone in Boston or San Francisco thinks. A writer can build a perfectly satisfactory reputation in Texas and he doesn't give a damn about what critics in Kalamazoo think. His universe is big enough to gratify any ambition. Same with business men. Same with newspapers. Same with everything." - 1985 James Michener's "Texas."