Lawmakers get cheesy designating latest state symbol

Our lawmakers in Madison have been hard at work this week debating important topics, conducting important meetings and holding important public hearings. All on the issue of yet another state symbol. The latest? Cheese. Colby cheese in fact. The Senate Committee on Government Operations, Legal Review and Consumer Protection held a hearing yesterday naming Colby cheese as the official state cheese. It seems rude to all the other delicious Wisconsin cheeses, but Colby was invented in Colby, Wisconsin in 1885. It is not clear why we need an official state cheese given Colby has been around for more than 140 years without a state designation. But it seems to be what lawmakers like to do. The state of Wisconsin already has an official state animal, the badger of course, as well as a state flower, bird and tree. There is a state mineral a state rock and the state’s symbol of peace, the mourning dove, which in a show of peace you can now legally kill in the state. Wisconsin also has an official state dog, state grain, state fossil, and state beverage, milk. That would be delicious to wash down some delicious official Wisconsin state cheese. Then you can burn it off by doing the official Wisconsin state dance, the polka.