My State Haz Gud Foood

Oh, thank gosh it wasn't worse, is the thought that surely popped into many Tennesseans' heads when they saw

from the people who brought you the

of

.

The map illustrates each state with a food. Some are pretty obvious: steak for Texas, pineapple for Hawaii and potatoes for Idaho. Others are inspired: buffets for Nevada, and Jell-O for Utah, which reminds me of an airplane ride I took from the Four Corners area with some Bavarians who had stayed at a Mormon B&B in Utah that served Jell-O every day to the confused Europeans.

Others are harder to verify, really, like coffee milk in Rhode Island.

I prepared to cringe when I looked for Tennessee (the way you cringe when a tornado hits the state, and the national media manage to find a barely coherent, nearly tooth-free Tennessean to offer the usual it-sounded-like-a-freight train with an optional it-done-tore-up-mama's-trailer).

Such relief, then, that our state is represented by sliced ripe tomatoes. (Testimony, perhaps, to the growing power of East Nashville's Tomato Art Fest?)