Americana: Bad News Bears

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Some time during the past 159 years, the official seal of Missouri turned unofficial. According to a state law passed in 1822, the seal is supposed to depict two Missouri grizzlies on their hind legs, each gazing out at the citizenry. The current version includes the mandated bears, but their bearing may be illegal: they stare straight at each other. Says State Representative Francis ("Bud") Barnes: "Somewhere along the line somebody started fooling around with those damn bears. They are now squaring off—and should not be." Which means that the seal does not conform with its statutory definition. Which means, in turn, that every gubernatorial order stamped with the seal for nobody knows how many years may be invalid. "Perhaps not null and void," Barnes says, "but probably voidable. That would sure mean a bunch of paper work down the tube." Like any good politician, Barnes is fighting paper work with paper work: he plans a resolution that would affirm those hundreds of "voidable" acts —and correctly pirouette the antisocial bears.