Texas - A Whole 'Nuther Country

As is typical during this season of excess and celebration, I have been spending a lot of time in bars and restaurants during my holiday visit to Texas. These convivial spaces, serving the role of "third place" between the public and private realms, offer a glimpse not only into the eating and drinking habits of Texans, but also into their social values and unusually self-aware sense of state pride.

It's a big state, and always has been. Texans will proudly remind foreigners (this includes residents of other states in the Union) that Texas was once its own sovereign country. But the boasting is most poignant to me when it's manifested in visual form.

I leave you today with a series of illustrative photos taken at Fred's Texas Cafe, an outpost of Texan beer, loud voices, and good-natured but unapologetic pride.

 

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer." - Frank Zappa

But what if I don't live in...? Ah. Okay, I see.

"Coldass Beer" - presumably meant to counteract whatever that Srirachi is going on

Frank Zappa may have forgotten to mention a toast.