Law Humor

Okay, I know that many of you are probably going nuts trying to remember Wisconsin's official state "song, flower, bird, tree, fish, state animal, wildlife animal, domestic animal, mineral, rock, symbol of peace, insect, soil, fossil, dog, beverage, grain, dance, ballad, waltz, fruit, and tartan" (soon to be joined by an official state microbe) even if that is only because you are studying for finals and your brains are desperate for any thoughts other than what you are being forced to think about.

So that you don't actually have to go do the research, I'll just tell you that they are, respectively, "On, Wisconsin," the wood violet, the robin, the sugar maple, the muskellunge, the badger, the white-tailed deer, the dairy cow, galena (lead sulfide), red granite, the mourning dove, the honey bee, antigo silt loam, the trilobite, the American water spaniel, milk, corn, the polka, "Oh Wisconsin Land of My Dreams," the "Wisconsin Waltz," the cranberry, and a tartan with a thread count that "shall begin with 44 threads of muted blue, followed by 6 threads of scarlet, 4 threads of muted blue, 6 threads of gray, 28 threads of black, 40 threads of dark green, 4 threads of dark yellow, 40 threads of dark green, 28 threads of black, 22 threads of muted blue, and 12 threads of dark brown, at which point the weave reverses, going through 22 threads of muted blue, and continuing the sequence in reverse order until the weave reaches the beginning point of 44 threads of muted blue, at which point the weave reverses again."  There.  Now you can relax, unless you have been running around Wisconsin wearing a tartan with the wrong thread count.  This might explain why you have been getting your ass kicked regularly by the state's many tartan-lovers.

Remarkably, as the Wisconsin Blue Book points out, though the state is often referred to by a nickname derived from its state animal (which as you now know is the badger), that nickname is not official.  And that means, of course, that it is not too late for the legislature to declare Wisconsin "The Trilobite State."

According to the Blue Book, the trilobite's "major rival for recognition as state fossil" was the mastodon.  Apparently, the trilobite lobby prevailed.

Link: Wis. Stat. § 1.10 (2007-08) (PDF).