Ed Darrell calls for Fiesta Texana

Ed Darrell, who runs Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, took one look at our Georgia Carnival and got a bit jealous. Texas needs a blog carnival, he says, except, Texas being what it is (or rather Texans being what they are), they'll have to call it "fiesta."

Well, Ed, Texas is further behind than you know. It has to catch up not only with Georgia; in addition to our carnival, there's the Carnival of Maryland, the Carnival of Ohio Bloggers, the Virginia Blog Carnival, and the Tarheel Tavern (that's my native state of North Carolina).

The Carnival of New Jersey Bloggers seems to have been inactive since last August, and the Illinois Carnival was last seen even further back.

(All of these are from the list of blog carnivals at-- well, at Blog Carnival.)

"If Georgia, with its dull, almost-landlocked, not-found-by-Europeans-until-the-17th-century and having-only-peaches-instead-of-peppers history can do it," Ed says, "Texas should be able to do it better."

Ed-- "Dull" is in the eye of the beholder; peaches vs. peppers is a matter of personal preference; "almost-landlocked," well, I'm not sure of your point there. But "not-found-by-Europeans-until-the-17th-century": that's a statement that can be verified, a point on which a real comparison can be made.

According to Wikipedia, "On November 6, 1528, shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European in Texas."

That's 1528.

On September 29, 1526, Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón landed with several hundred people on the coast of what would become Georgia and began erecting a colony, named San Miguel de Gualdape, the first European colony in the New World.

1526.

So, Ed, you can have your peppers and your shoreline; we have our blog carnival and the distinction of the first European colony.

Good luck getting a Texas blog fiesta together!

(I wrote something about San Miguel a few years ago. I'll see if I can find it and post it here later.)