Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

John Ray keeps a very active site Down Under. Instead of comments for each posts, he maintains three pages of letters from readers. Today he had one from Keith Burgess Jackson, a professor at the University of Texas in Arlington.

Jackson is a transplant from Michigan, and has come to love Texas after first hating it. I think that happens often. I’ve known many people who moved here, disgusted at first, then proud to be a part of us. As the ads say, Texas is like a whole ‘nother country.

My brother-in-law lives in Boise, and follows the Boise State football team closely. Last season they ended up playing a bowl game in Fort Worth against TCU. Many of the BSU fans had conversations with TCU fans on the internet prior to making the trip. They were shocked that the TCU folks would invite them to cookouts and tailgate parties. Where was the fierce animosity of football fans everywhere? They were so nice.

I told him there is nobody who takes football more seriously than Texans. Friday nights see staudia packed in towns large and small. But it is, after all, only football. Fans in Texas are enemies only for the duration of the game. After that, they can all go out for a beer together.

Bogey and the missus are Cornell University graduates. Bogey grew up in New York. I always introduce him as my son-in-law, the hairy New Yorker. He always responds that he wasn’t born in Texas, but got here as quickly as he could. I’m sure they miss friends and family up north, but both seem to have found a place they enjoy, with plenty around that interests them.

I’ve lived many places in this world. I’ve found something good about every country I’ve visited. But I can’t think of any country I’d rather be in than the US, except Texas.