Elton Reads A Book A Week

So, this week I decided to take a break from the heavy lifting of a full novel to look at something equally weird: why the places we live have such bizarre "official" handles. Honestly, if you actually look into where state nicknames come from, it’s rarely a group of dignified founders sitting around a table. It’s usually just a bunch of 19th-century dudes making fun of each other until someone decided to put the insult on a license plate.What we're getting into:The Original Trolls: We talk about how a place like Missouri ended up with the "Show-Me" label. Spoiler: It wasn’t a compliment. It was basically a way of calling people from the Ozarks a little too "slow on the uptake" to understand a joke.The Nutmeg Scam: Connecticut is out here calling itself the "Constitution State" now, but back in the day, they were the "Nutmeg State" because their traders were legendary for selling fake, wooden spices to unsuspecting tourists. It’s basically the 1800s versio