Hell-o?

Mug: Another Chinese generic, ad-specialties mug. Good basic design, but lacking in some key tactile areas (body thickness and weight).

This mug was part of the promotional campaign for the original "- God" billboards that were placed around the country several years ago. They were a wonderful series, and the person behind the project never revealed his/her identity. This particular mug was a gift to a Dallas City Councilmember. At a meeting, I saw it on her shelf and mentioned my approval. She gave it to me.

Coffee: The Colombian base from Central Market.

Notes: "Wait a minute," you perhaps say. "Isn't this Texas History Coffee Mug Month? What does this have to do with Texas History?" I'll tell you.

The Texas Revolution was the last Western, and only American, Religious War. It's overlooked by the text books on all sides, which nowadays prefer to make the the Texas Revolution a war about slavery (it has that element, but not quite the way it's being spun).

From the time of the Spanish Colonial Period up through Mexico's Independence, immigrants to Mexico had to convert to Roman Catholicism. All of Austin's "Old 300" did that. But with the advent of more immigrants coming from the Scottish midlands (the Great Celtic Wave that swept North America in the early 18th Century), came Presbyterians and Methodists and Baptists unwilling to renounce Jesus for the Pope. These were the same peoples who pushed the United States off the Atlantic Seaboard out past the Appalacians and onto the Great Plains. These were the first people who were able to stand against the Apache and the Commanche. Fighting was in their blood, and fighting for God and Land (not "country") was a job they were eager for.