Corn is king (pending an Assembly vote)

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took a swipe at the New York State Senate's priorities last week, when the senators -- still deadlocked over the pending same-sex marriage bill -- took time out of an extended session to vote sweet corn in as the official New York State vegetable.

State senator David Carlucci, who represents Rockland County and part of Orange County, took some heat for his speech on the Senate floor on behalf of the bill. He's not bitter, though -- even though the Daily Show misidentified him as a Republican. (Carlucci's a Democrat, and a vocal same-sex marriage supporter.) The Senator took to Twitter after the show:

At any rate, the corn legislation did eventually take a back seat to the more urgent matters of the day: The Times Herald-Record reports that a companion bill has yet to pass the Assembly.

And while they may not be as vocal in their disapproval as the foes of same-sex marriage, there are a few disappointed constitutents in the wake of the historic corn vote:

Carlucci's solidarity with the onion didn't stop him from also supporting the proposal of state Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-C-Seneca Falls, to make sweet corn the state vegetable. Carlucci says he just likes vegetables.

"Agriculture is New York's largest industry," he said. "What's really important is that we are calling attention to New York's agricultural products."

Yeah, well, tell that to the farmers of cabbage, New York's No. 1 cash-producing crop, which didn't even have a bill pending. Or snap-pea supporters, who had to resort to write-in votes in a New York Farm Bureau Facebook poll, in which corn swamped onions. Or the few brave, but very literal-minded, senators who objected to corn because it's technically a grain, not a vegetable.

We still like ramps. Not that anybody asked us.