Two special comics in one week? Am I insane? Yes, probably.

I am a Texan (as is Tim), and this is a day that I definitely celebrate annually, the day on which my grand state declared its independence from Mexico as the Republic of Texas. So, today, you get an special comic, and I get to drink Texas beers with Texas whiskey chasers and say to just about anyone I care to, “You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.”

If you are unfamiliar with the story which accompanies that quote, allow me to explain. Davy Crockett, “King of the Wild Frontier”, the American legend who ended up dying at the Alamo, made his way to Texas from Tennessee to take up residence and fight for the beautiful land he found there. He was just coming off of a loss in his campaign for re-election as a congressman for Tennessee. He stood up in a bar in Nacogdoches, Texas, and was believed to have said this:

“I am told, gentlemen, that, when a stranger, like myself, arrives among you, the first inquiry is ‘what brought you here?’ To satisfy your curiosity at once as to myself, I will tell you all about it. I was, for some years, a member of congress. In my last canvass, I told the people of my district, that, if they saw fit to re-elect me, I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but, if not, they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas. I was beaten, gentlemen, and here I am.”

The quote has evolved from there, as language does over two hundred years, to read more like the quote that I stated in the first paragraph. It is a point of pride for us Texans and adds to the rich mythology of our state’s birth, one very similar to that of America’s birth, one filled with larger-than-life bravery and heroics from men who defied the odds. It is a beautiful story when you think about it. But perhaps that is because I am an old Texan who loves his home.

-The Retail Explorer