Never Went Broke Dept.

Yet another salvo in the War of the Wrights was launched today. An article in the Winston Salem Journal reports that the Aviation Heritage Foundation, a Dayton, Ohio-based group dedicated to the memory of the Wright Brothers, conducted a survey last month stating that forty percent of Americans thought that the Wrights, Dayton's most famous sons, invented the airplane in North Carolina, the state they made their first flight in because of its steady winds. Only fourteen percent knew they were from Ohio.

This is the latest in a long-running rivalry as aviation is a bit of a sore spot for the Buckeye State. Ohio was so disturbed by the North Carolina license plate (which boasts that state was "First in Flight"), it changed its own plates to "Birthplace of Aviation." Then when the U.S. Mint came calling it put the Wrights and Neil Armstrong (a native of Wapokoneta, Ohio) on its state quarter. It is only a matter of time before Ohio takes advantage of the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction to sue the Tarheel State for false advertising. Just because you don't have a leg to stand on doesn't mean you can't get a lawsuit going. That's the American way and we can at least take comfort that when America's factions fight they generally do it with polls, pleas, press releases, and plates.