From The State:
Stephen Colbert struck another blow for truthiness on”The Colbert Report,”this time in defense of South Carolina peaches.
On his Aug. 24 Comedy Central show, Colbert dissed Georgia for laying claim to being”The Peach State,”as South Carolina consistently outproduces its neighbor when it comes to the peach crop.
Colbert, a Charleston native and sharp satirist, described National Peach Month, which is in August, as”30 days of simmering resentment”because of”the fraud perpetrated by Georgia.”
An amused South Carolina Department of Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers appreciated Colbert’s biting wit in defending South Carolina’s status and for quoting the ag department on the state’s peaches in which”the sugar level is superb.”
Weathers admitted Georgia got the jump on South Carolina”when it came to marketing. Georgia got the label (‘The Peach State’) years ago.”
Weathers considered the possibility of issuing some kind of challenge or wager to Georgia, but he pointed out that Georgia’s Secretary of Agriculture, Tommy Irvin, is”a big guy. He’s about six-foot-six. But I think I could still take him.”
South Carolina is the country’s second top producer of peaches behind California : a state that makes many claims but does not often brag about peaches.
South Carolina Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Becky Walton said South Carolina occasionally falls out of second place as a peach producer (and possibly behind Georgia) if weather conditions and marketing are off. But she quickly recovered South Carolina’s honor by acknowledging,”We do have the tastier peach.”
Colbert suggested Georgia change its license plate motto to:”The Burned To The Ground By Sherman State.”Perhaps South Carolina might consider dropping”Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places”for”The Tastier Peach State.
–Ann Bartow
Yes! And Ohio could change its plates to, “Home Of The General Who Burned Georgia To The Ground.”
Odd you should mention Ohio. South Carolina’s biggest industry is tourism, but as you might imagine, like the permanent residents of tourist destinations everywhere, South Carolinians have a kind of love/hate relationship with the tourists. For whatever reason, the ones who do the dumbest things (don’t use sunscreen and fry themselves, run their boats out of gas in the middle of the ocean, requiring rescue by the coast guard, ask really ignorant questions) are always rhetorically assumed to be from Ohio. I have no idea why this is. New Yorkers are also objects of derision, but a different kind, one that assumes they are obnoxious and pushy, rather than dumb.