The cachet of symbols: cake, exercise seek to be US states' icons

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — What do dog mushing, white marble, the Tilt-a-Whirl amusement ride and a layer cake have in common?

All are or have been nominated to be some of the varied symbols of US states, which include everything from sports to songs, desserts to dogs, rocks to fossils.

In snowy Alaska and the sun-drenched Hawaiian Islands, the state sports are -- fairly predictably -- dog mushing and surfing, respectively.

Lawmakers in Vermont, said to be the first state to allow snowboarders onto its pistes, are debating whether to make snowboarding their state's official sport.

In Maryland, the state sport is far less predictable: it's jousting.

"It's not the combat jousting that was done in medieval times; it's ring jousting, which was very...