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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 16, 1993                   TAG: 9301180343
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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BRIEFLY PUT . . .

VIRGINIA has a state dog (foxhound), a state bird (cardinal), a state beverage (milk), a state shell (oyster) and a state song, the words of which are offensive enough that most people dare not sing it anymore.

Now, Sen. Charles Waddell, D-Loudoun, says he wants the assembly to designate an official state fossil. He proposes the scallop, Chespecten jeffersonius, which is named for Thomas Jefferson and is 4.5 million years old (which really carries us back to old Virginny). We eagerly await Waddell's explanation as to why we need a state fossil.

THIS GENERAL Assembly session could be a rough one. It is, after all, an election year - not just for statewide offices but also for 100 members of the House of Delegates. Rhetorical bullets fly in such years. And this year, the National Rifle Association has taken aim at proposed gun-control legislation.

Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville, may have set a fashion trend, in light of all this, when for the legislature's opening day he wore a combat helmet.

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