{"id":444072,"date":"2026-09-22T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444072\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:54:15","slug":"dont-mess-with-texas-mcsweeneys-internet-tendency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444072\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Mess with Texas – McSweeney\u2019s Internet Tendency"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an excerpt from McSweeney\u2019s contributor Eli Burnstein\u2019s new book, Phrased & Confused<\/a>, a guide to the great quotations that we just keep getting wrong. From ancient maxims like \u201cSeize the day\u201d to modern sound bites like \u201cThe road less traveled,\u201d Phrased & Confused<\/a> sets the record straight on commonly misunderstood statements \u2014 and plumbs the meanings of famously slippery ones (\u201cI think therefore I am,\u201d \u201cA rose is a rose is a rose\u201d). Pairing witty commentary with lighthearted illustration from New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck, it\u2019s the ideal resource for lovers of language, literature, history, and philosophy, full of intelligence and insight for curious minds everywhere.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t mess with Texas\u201d
(Tim McClure, 1985)<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Tough-guy catchphrase? No. Anti-littering slogan. Get it? Mess?<\/p>\n

Though widely assumed to be a bit of generic Texas swagger, the brassy pun was put out by the Texas Department of Transportation in 1985 in an effort to curb rampant roadside littering: Taxpayers were spending around $20 million a year to clean up automotive trash, and young men of the pickup truck\u2013driving, beer can\u2013slinging variety, not to be won over by signs saying pretty please, were thought to be the chief culprit.<\/p>\n

The campaign worked. According to the book Don\u2019t Mess with Texas: The Story Behind the Legend, the public service offensive helped reduce litter on Texas highways by roughly 72 percent within five years. Indeed, the phrase was so catchy that it took on a life of its own, spilling out beyond garbage cans and bumper stickers and tracking into the zeitgeist, encapsulating Texan \u2019tude even better than \u201cRemember the Alamo.\u201d Seared onto belt buckles, peppered into political speeches, the phrase has become so fused with the Lone Star ethos that most of us\u2014including more than a few Texans\u2014have no idea where it comes from.<\/p>\n

Which is why, believe it or not, the Texas Department of Transportation has historically been a bit feisty about protecting their slogan, a registered trademark: They want people to get the anti-littering part of the message. So, if you\u2019re thinking of slapping it on a T-shirt or trucker cap and don\u2019t want to get a cease-and-desist letter, you may want to ask them first. As former New York Times\u2019 Houston bureau chief Manny Fernandez quipped, \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Texas. In fact, don\u2019t even mess with \u2018Don\u2019t Mess with Texas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Origin<\/p>\n

Coined by Tim McClure of the ad agency GSD&M, \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Texas\u201d (sorry, \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Texas\u00ae\u201d) was deemed sufficiently edgy that the then-called State Department of Highways and Public Transportation initially hesitated to use it. Good thing they took a chance. Since its inception, \u201cDon\u2019t mess with Texas\u201d\u2013themed TV and radio PSAs have featured such high-profile Texans as Matthew McConaughey, Erykah Badu, Ethan Hawke, Owen Wilson, George Foreman, Lance Armstrong, Willie Nelson, Chuck Norris, and Shamu the orca. We\u2019re still waiting on one from Beyonc\u00e9.<\/p>\n

– – –<\/p>\n

Eli Burnstein\u2019s Phrased & Confused<\/a> is available wherever books are sold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is an excerpt from McSweeney\u2019s contributor Eli Burnstein\u2019s new book, Phrased & Confused, a guide to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-444072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}