In the late 1990s, T-shirts and bumper stickers declared that Texas is “bigger than France.” Will Rogers said much the same thing back in 1932.
Texas Territories Store
Bigger Than France T-shirt
Our best seller internationally! Famous Texans who own this shirt include Lance Armstrong and President Bush. Don’t be left out. T-shirt is 100% cotton and available in sizes S to XXL. Bonus: Turn the shirt inside-out and wave as the French battle flag.
Price: $20.00
Google Groups: alt.culture.us.southwest
From: Denis McKeon
Date: Mon, Aug 17 1998 12:00 am
>I haven’t seen that one. A popular bumper sticker at the moment is,
>“Poor New Mexico! So far from Heaven and so close to Texas.”
Land of the flea,
Home of the plague
seems to keep recurring as a bumper-sticker and tee-shirt. I just saw:
Texas: Bigger than France
on I-25 near Trinidad, CO, and had a vision of a team of bowlegged men wearing cowboy boots, chaps, and spurs playing in the World Cup.
(And yes, France is 210,040 square miles, and Texas is 262,134 square miles. Other comparisions and contrasts may occur to thoughtful readers.)
7 October 1932, New York Times, “Will Rogers Still Marvels At the Immensity of Texas,” pg. 23:
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Oct. 6.—I been flying, train riding, automobiling, horsebacking and buggy riding over Texas for thirty-three years and I’ve never seen a tenth of it.
It it had been in Europe eighty wars would have been fought over it. There is single ranches here bigger than France, counties bigger than England, saddle horse pastures as big as Alsace Lorraine.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“Welcome to growing older. Where all the foods and drinks you’ve loved for years suddenly seem determined to destroy you” (4/17)
•“Date someone who drinks with you instead of complaining that you drink” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing the evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Government creates the crises so it can ‘rescue’ you with the loss of freedom” (4/17)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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