Thank you John for pointing this out.
If I remember my history correctly California was "discovered" in 1542 by Juan Cabrillo who was working for Spain and until 1848 when statehood happened was under various spanish and mexican control. Seems to me that here in Cali anyway that the spaniards and mexicans had this for twice as long as it has been a state. That is why we on the left coast may be more relaxed.
Here is some history on our name:
California was the name given to a mythical island populated only by beautiful Amazon warriors, as depicted in Greek myths, using gold tools and weapons in the popular early 16th-century romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. This popular Spanish fantasy was printed in several editions with the earliest surviving edition published about 1510. In exploring Baja California the earliest explorers thought the Baja Peninsula was an island and applied the name California to it.[7] Mapmakers started using the name "California" to label the unexplored territory on the North America west coast.
Rob