The Slice: Face it – others should follow us

What if all the other states followed Washington’s lead and put someone’s face on their flags?

OK, that’s not likely to happen. But here are some suggestions anyway. Feel free to come up with your own nominees.

Alabama: Rosa Parks. Alaska: Big Mike Heney. Arizona: Cochise. Arkansas: Johnny Cash. California: Jerry Garcia.

Colorado: Glenn Miller. Connecticut: Eli Whitney. Delaware: Caesar Rodney. Florida: Sidney Poitier.

Georgia: Ray Charles. Hawaii: Duke Kahanamoku. Idaho: Lana Turner. Illinois: Jane Addams. Indiana: Kurt Vonnegut.

Iowa: Meredith Willson. Kansas: Amelia Earhart. Kentucky: Secretariat. Louisiana: Louis Armstrong. Maine: Joshua Chamberlain.

Maryland: Thurgood Marshall. Massachusetts: Dr. Seuss. Michigan: The Supremes. Minnesota: Bob Dylan. Mississippi: Oprah Winfrey.

Missouri: Mark Twain. Montana: Gary Cooper. Nebraska: Red Cloud. Nevada: Wayne Newton. New Hampshire: Daniel Webster.

New Jersey: Bruce Springsteen. New Mexico: Georgia O’Keeffe. New York: Franklin D. Roosevelt. North Carolina: Andy Griffith. North Dakota: Lawrence Welk.

Ohio: Neil Armstrong. Oklahoma: Woody Guthrie. Oregon: Raymond Carver. Pennsylvania: W.C. Fields. Rhode Island: Matthew Perry.

South Carolina: James Brown. South Dakota: Crazy Horse. Tennessee: Davy Crockett. Texas: Buddy Holly. Utah: Philo Farnsworth.

Vermont: Larry, Darrel and Darrel. Virginia: Thomas Jefferson. West Virginia: Chuck Yeager. Wisconsin: Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wyoming: Curt Gowdy.

Suddenly I feel like I want a do-over. Or two. This process is complicated by the fact that many important or famous individuals were born one place and achieved big things somewhere else.

So I was pretty flexible with my definitions of what state has the dominant claim on a person. But that seems only fair. After all, George Washington never set foot in what would one day become the Evergreen State.

I’ll post a complete list from at least one reader on The Slice Blog.

Happy Flag Day.

Today Slice question: How many times does something have to happen or how prevalent does a behavior have to be before it’s appropriate to refer to it as “a Spokane thing”?