I recently did something that I vowed never to do – I went to Texas. My sister-in-law lives in Houston and was getting married, making it a completely unavoidable occurrence. The people were friendly, the barbecue was tasty (although inferior to my native Carolinian barbecue), and it was an all around nice place to be.

The trip alleviated many of the strange fears I have about the former Republic of Texas and its citizens. More importantly, though, it reminded me of a piece I had written about Texas for The Snowflake Effect that didn’t make the final edit. To commemorate the monumental occasion of surviving my first trip to Texas, I decided to dig into my rough drafts and post the piece for your enjoyment.

Here it is. Enjoy it. Or don’t:

Texas – the state special enough that it was once a country. This is a fact that pretty much every…