Did you wonder what kept the members of the 82nd Texas Legislation so busy they didn't finish their business during the regular session?
Well, it takes time to draft things like this 400 word resolution declaring Lamesa to be the Legendary Home of the Chicken-fried Steak due to a spoof published in the capital city newspaper in 1976. Excerpt from H.C.R. No. 134 :
WHEREAS, For generations, Texans pondered the seemingly eternal mystery of who invented the chicken-fried steak; then, in 1976, came an answer: Larry BeSaw published an article in the Austin American-Statesman explaining that this wondrous combination of beef, batter, and breading had first been dropped onto a well-oiled skillet in 1911 by Jimmy Don Perkins, a short-order cook at Ethel's Home Cooking in Lamesa, Texas; according to the published story, Mr. Perkins had mistakenly combined two separate orders for chicken and fried steak into a single culinary creation whose savory goodness became famous far beyond West Texas; and
WHEREAS, Mr. BeSaw had created his article as a spoof, never intending it to be taken as fact, but the story quickly took on a life of its own; ...
WHEREAS, ... because the Jimmy Don Perkins tale is just a darn good story, it is indeed appropriate that the city of Lamesa be recognized for its role in this imaginative and imaginary incident in Texas history; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas hereby declare Lamesa the Legendary Home of the Chicken-fried Steak.
So an Austin American-Statesman reporter wrote a good story, so good it, in fact, that it created an urban legend. Then later he had to admit that he made it all up. But the story was so good the Texas Legislature immortalized it with a resolution. Sometimes a lie is just so good no one wants to call it like a lie.
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