Wisconsin Tartan

[Sherry]

Alas! No pics!

Bill for state tartan wraps Badger clan in special plaid


It's not an official state kilt, but it's close.

Today the Assembly's Committee on State Affairs will take up a bill that names a state tartan - a plaid of Scottish origin used to designate a particular clan. Bill supporter Robert McWilliam of Whitefish Bay said 36 states have tartans, but this isn't just an attempt to keep up with the McGregors.

"This is something that the state deserves and anyone could wear" as part of a tie or fabric, said McWilliam, a past president of the St. Andrew's Society in Milwaukee.


Wisconsin's growing list of 21 symbols has drawn criticism from some as unnecessary, but the bill's author, state Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz, R-Menomonee Falls, said the cost would be only a new picture in the state Blue Book.

"Sometimes you do things like this because ... you don't see a reason not to."

AB 815 calls for a tartan with "44 threads of muted blue, followed by 6 threads of scarlet, 4 threads of muted blue, 6 threads of gray" and so on through black and dark green, yellow and brown.

McWilliam said supporters tried to make the tartan representative of the whole state, not just the 1 percent of Scottish descent, by making the colors symbolic, such as blue for Great Lakes shipping.

"I think ours is less frivolous than the (state) polka dance," McWilliam said, "but maybe not."

- Jason Stein


http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/loca...php?ntid=68339

[cajunscot]

Sherry (and all):

Here is a picture from the St. Andrew's Society of Milwaukee's web site:

http://standrewssocietymilwaukee.org/page2.html

And from Matt's site on district tartans:

http://www.district-tartans.com/wisconsin.htm

And, just for fun, a very nicely done "Wisconsin Scottish" badge complete with kilted badger:

http://www.wisconsinscottish.org/store.html

Cheers,

Todd

[Wulfestieg]

Okay, the kilted badger is just plain cool.

I may currently live in Minnesota, but I'm a born and bred 'Sconnie boy, and it's good to see the old state catching up to the others who have declared a state tartan. It's not a bad tartan, either. Though I must say, I'm a tad surprised they didn't just use the UW in Scotland tartan.

[cajunscot]

Okay, the kilted badger is just plain cool.

I may currently live in Minnesota, but I'm a born and bred 'Sconnie boy, and it's good to see the old state catching up to the others who have declared a state tartan. It's not a bad tartan, either. Though I must say, I'm a tad surprised they didn't just use the UW in Scotland tartan.

It appears that the Wisconsin in Scotland tartan is a corporate/university tartan for UW extension campus in Dalkeith:

http://www.tartans.scotland.net/tart...tartan_id=1473

Maybe the university wouldn't allow it? Or perhaps the various Scottish organisations in WI liked this one better? Usually several designs are submitted and then voted upon by members or a committee representing the state's Scottish community.

Cheers,

Todd

[bubba]

I'm not going to expect a great deal from this. Heck, the newspaper here won't even mention Tartan Day. Instead they say running political ads is more important.

[GMan]

Somehow Bubba, I think that you could single handedly change that. Shoot maybe they will run you for office and you could really shake things up!

[Sherry]

State Tartan To Replace Cheesehead?

Wisconsin Legislators To Pick State Plaid Design



POSTED: 12:46 pm CST January 11, 2006
UPDATED: 1:01 pm CST January 11, 2006


MADISON, Wis. -- Some bloggers say it's a waste of time and fabric. But, state legislators apparently don't think so.

A legislative committee held a hearing Wednesday on a bill that designates an official state tartan, a plaid design of Scottish origin. Thirty-six other states apparently already have such designs.

Wisconsin has an official dog (American water spaniel), tree (sugar maple), and even a peace symbol (mourning dove). So why not a state-sanctioned plaid pattern?

Representative Suzanne Jeskewitz of Menomonee Falls introduced the bill on behalf of the St. Andrews Society, a Scottish group.

The Wisconsin design incorporates colors representing its natural resources and industries: yellow for dairy and its brewing heritage, green for the northern pines, blue for the state's 15-thousand lakes, red for the Badgers. And where yellow meets green? The Green Bay Packers, of course.

Bob McWilliam of the St. Andrews Society says the tartan would be a way to show Wisconsin pride without putting on a cheesehead.
http://www.channel3000.com/news/6003...s=c3k&psp=news

[starbkjrus]

Oh well, I was beaten to the punch on this one. There is a picture of this in the Compendium of District Tartans and it's quite nice. Good luck in the Wisconsin Legislature.

[philbo]

This is great! I'll have to tell my family members who live in Wisconsin. Not that they wear kilts (yet) but perhaps they can hook me up with a few yards of that fabric.

[Sherry]

Some may want to respond to this:

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/app...601160312/1636

This idea is officially goofy, lads






That Wisconsin has an official state beverage (milk) and a designated domestic animal that produces it (the dairy cow) and even an official wild animal (the whitetail deer, which we kill by the millions) and symbol of peace (the mourning dove, ditto) is kind of understandable.



Most of us even can accept the official fish (the muskellunge) and animal (badger, which is a wild animal but not to be confused with the official wild animal) and bird (robin) even if we're a little skeptical of the official rock (red granite) or dog (American water spaniel, which most of us have never laid eyes on.)



But when lawmakers felt the need to name an official soil in 1983, more than a few of us raised our eyebrows. Antigo silt loam made the grade, though, so now we can celebrate our dirt. And a couple of years later, our respected solons reached back eons to find an official fossil, the trilobite.



Heck, we've even got an official mythological beast, the Hodag.



But our illustrious lawmakers aren't finished yet. Soon, we'll be worse than a bowl game or race car, with state-sanctioning of everything with any sort of a Wisconsin connection -- or no connection whatsoever.



Witness the latest debacle, the effort to designate an official state tartan plaid, brought to us by the fine clan of ... Jeskewitz?



Tartan plaid designs traditionally are used to designate affiliation with a particular Scottish clan. No matter that Wisconsin isn't exactly populated by folks longing for the peat bogs of their homeland.



State Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz thinks we need one, and she's even got a plan. The plaid will be a weave of yellow, representing our cheese and beer, green for the Northwoods pines, blue for our 15,000 lakes and red for the University of Wisconsin.



And she's not kidding around. A legislative committee held an official hearing on the official state tartan this week.



"I think it's pretty," Jeskewitz said, displaying a sample of the fabric.



The lawmaker said she introduced her bill at the request of Milwaukee's St. Andrews Society, a clan that venerates the heritage of its members.



Secretary Dave Berger told the Associated Press he envisions curling teams making uniforms from the tartan and citizens proudly wearing arm patches made of the fabric.



In a state that recognizes its more universal heritage by wearing foam rubber cheese on our noggins, anything's possible. But plaid patches? Really?



We suppose legislators could be considering far more harmful laws. Any time they spend discussing plaid is time they could have devoted to vilifying homosexuals, protecting negligent doctors from lawsuits or arming all and sundry.



No harm can come of it, really. We'll just add it to the growing list, right next to the state mineral (galena) and insect (honeybee.)

But if Jim Doyle shows up at the official signing wearing a kilt, we're outta there.
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