Oklahoma: The Sooner Boomer

Such picayune problems as teachers up in arms over pensions and a highway department scandal can have an unsettling effect on a legislature. Last week, however, lawgivers of the sovereign state of Oklahoma laid aside these minor matters to concentrate on a historic decision. Without a dissenting nay, the assembly decreed that the collared lizard, known as “the mountain boomer” amid the hills of Ouachita and Wichita, will henceforth be designated as the Sooner State’s official reptile.

Representative Lee Gate, champion of Crotaphytus collaris, introduced a prime boomer in a box to the assembly. The box fell. The lizard leaped. A fleet-footed fellow, he accomplished several laps around the chamber floor before being collared. Despite impressive arguments by a state senator who favored the horned toad, Crotaphytus collaris will share honors with mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens), the state flower; the redbud (Cercis canadensis), the state tree; and the scissor-tailed flycatcher (Muscivora forficatd), the state’s official bird. State officials of Alabama, which has long been nicknamed the Lizard State, refrained from comment.