In the Doghouse Over Outhouse
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Alaska is represented by an igloo, California by a cable car and Kentucky by a horse. But West Virginia’s symbol didn’t go down as well.
A Kentucky software maker uses graphics to symbolize each of the 50 states in a software program to be used by students for illustrations. Under protest, it has agreed to throw out its West Virginia emblem: an outhouse.
State Sen. Sondra Lucht said this week that she bought the Coopergraphics program Images at a Martinsburg computer store.
“It had all these symbols for the states,” she said. “When I got down to West Virginia, I was irate.”
She said she tracked down company owner Jim Cooper, who said he didn’t intend to offend West Virginians and got the idea during a trip through the state.
“At every gift shop, they had hordes of these ceramic outhouses,” Cooper said. An outhouse, he thought, would make a good “tongue-in-cheek” symbol.
Cooper said he is upgrading the program and will probably use a cardinal, the state bird, as West Virginia’s symbol.
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