Bouncing Pickles Tops the List of Weird State Facts

By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 12/9/2008

According to Connecticut State law, a pickle isn’t a pickle unless it bounces when held one foot above an oak table. The world’s largest chicken dance takes place in Wayne, NE. And the longest Morse code telegram ever sent was the Nevada state constitution in 1864, from Carson City to Washington, D.C., at a cost $3,400. These are some of the unusual and fun facts that many media specialists submitted about their states for the Scholastic “America the Beautiful Scavenger Hunt” contest. 

Nintey winners each will receive a complete set of the “America the Beautiful” series valued at $1,976. And their submissions will be included in the 53rd volume of the series Fast Facts about the 50 States.

“Where better to fill a book full of fascinating state-by-state trivia than librarians from across the country?” says Greg Worrell, president of the Scholastic Classroom and Library Group, a division of Scholastic.  “Libraries are centers of information and learning for all of us.” 

Kaylene Flanary, a library media specialist at Kulshan Middle School in Bellingham, WA, submitted the fact that the popular sports cheer, the wave, was created by Huskie fans at the University of Washington.

Winners approached the challenge in various ways. 

Jacquie Sewell, a media specialist at the Ward Cliff Elementary School in East Lansing, MI, used the knowledge she acquired as a charter docent at the Michigan State Historical Center to come up with this interesting fact: Stevens T. Mason is known as the “Boy Governor” because he was appointed acting territorial governor of Michigan at the age of 22. 

Meanwhile, Lisa Plavin, a librarian at the Martin Elementary School in Manchester, CT, used her own library collection—the book You Can’t Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-known Laws (Doubleday, 1975) by Barbara Seuling—to uncover her bouncing pickle fact.