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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