Missouri: The Puke State
By Forgive the absence, I was at a conference in Madison which was a great time made greater by an unexpected trip up to Stevens Point along the Wisconsin River yesterday. Note that the living hell that is Wisconsin Dells should be bombed into the Stone Age and then everyone involved in the bombing murdered so that memory of one of the most grotesque tourist towns in the nation can be forgotten.
Coming back, I was fortunate enough to be sent this glorious 1884 pig themed map of the United States, produced by H.W. Hill & Co., a pork manufacturing concern, with state nicknames acted out by pigs. A few particularly interesting points include absurd now forgotten nicknames (including Missouri as per the post title, but also Kentucky, the Corn Cracker State and Illinois, the Sucker State), the utter offensiveness of the portrayal of New Mexico, and the fact that Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming are too irrelevant as territories to get a nickname, but they still get pigs doing things.