Two questions about states

[Reilly]

1. What is your favorite U.S state shape?

2. What is your favorite U.S. state name?

(questions inspired by recent weather channel storm watching)

[OldPhiKap]

1. What is your favorite U.S state shape?

2. What is your favorite U.S. state name?

(questions inspired by recent weather channel storm watching)

1. Oklahoma. Go west, young man.

2. Loooooosiana. Roll the first part as long as you dare.

(Bias disclaimer, never lived in either one)

[hurleyfor3]

1. Utah

2. Montana

[OldPhiKap]

1. Utah



Square.

[hurleyfor3]

Square.

"Wyoming: The Other Square State"

[OldPhiKap]

"Wyoming: The Other Square State"

And you are in Colorado?

I guess recent legislation keeps you out of being "square" though . . . .

(J/k, obviously. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah is absolutely beautiful country. Hope winter is okay for you)

[hurleyfor3]

We're doing fine with snow this year. It takes a lot of effort not to comment about how wimpy eastern time zone people are with their little girly foot of snow.

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/gis/images/west_swepctnormal_update.png

[brevity]

"Wyoming: The Other Square State"


And you are in Colorado?

Hey, you can say you've always owned a State Shaped Cutting Board (http://aheirloom.myshopify.com/collections/the-state-shaped-cutting-boards). I had a Colorado board that I accidentally dropped on the floor, and it got chipped in the corner. So now I have a Kansas board.

[BD80]

1. Keystone

2. Hawaii

3. What is your favorite color? Blue. No. Yello... aaayyaaiiiiiiii!

[DukieInKansas]

1. Keystone

2. Hawaii

3. What is your favorite color? Blue. No. Yello... aaayyaaiiiiiiii!

1. Alaska

2. Whichever one I'm in - no sense not liking where you are

3. What is the airspeed of a swallow?

[OldPhiKap]

3. What is the airspeed of a swallow?

African or European? Laden or unladen?

Lots of variables here.

[DukieInKansas]

African or European? Laden or unladen?

Lots of variables here.

I'm sure that, if I weren't safely ensconced on the twelfth floor of a building with windows that don't open, I would have just fallen into the abyss.

[77devil]

We're doing fine with snow this year. It takes a lot of effort not to comment about how wimpy eastern time zone people are with their little girly foot of snow.

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/gis/images/west_swepctnormal_update.png

3917 3918

Wimpy, really? Just some of the damage on my property from that "girly foot of snow." I've lived through a direct hit from Hurricane Andrew-23 days w/o electricity and 16 w/o water and several > 7.0 earthquakes in the bay area. Plenty of damage all. Idiots like you have no clue.

[Reilly]

If those photos are supposed to elicit sympathy, I'm expecting some cards next Jan 6th when I drag the Xmas tree though the kitchen to the deck.

[77devil]

If those photos are supposed to elicit sympathy, I'm expecting some cards next Jan 6th when I drag the Xmas tree though the kitchen to the deck.

No sympathy needed. I've got about $5 grand of clean up. Petty cash for me, how about you? But card is on its way.

[Acymetric]

https://xkcd.com/1079/

Relevant to this conversation, I thought.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/united_shapes.png

[throatybeard]

1. What is your favorite U.S state shape?

2. What is your favorite U.S. state name?

(questions inspired by recent weather channel storm watching)

Okay, you're suddenly my favorite DBR poster ever.

Shape

West Virginia. I can't even believe there's a discussion after this.

There are states that are aware of their shape and others that aren't. Less than .66% of the population live in that state where they know their shape is awesome. All these arts and crafts in WV are WV -shaped

Honorable mentions: Oklahoma (duh), Minnesota, Mississippi only because it looks like Bart Simpson's head doing a lookback, Maryland because it's on crack, maybe Oregon.

State Name

I love a lot of state names. My wife and I were on a grueling long car trip back to the SE at some point, and we quizzed each other about what language the state names were from, whether Spanish (Colorado), French (Louisiana), Latin (Carolinas), or Native American/Indigenous peoples' names. We came to the conclusion that about 50% of the state names are from Native American languages. I think it was 25-24, and the only one we weren't sure about was Maine.

But because I love bilabial consonants, I'm going with Alabama. The following post explains why:

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?32558-Chick-fil-A-Bowl-24-Duke-vs-21-Texas-A-amp-M-(12-31-8PM-ESPN)&p=686308#post686308

[duketaylor]

I'm voting for the stegosaurus and Abalama!! Or is it Amalaba, geez, I'm just plain confused, my bad!!

[Wander]

Best shape is the combination of Minnesota through Louisiana: it's an elf as viewed from the side. Louisiana is the foot/lower leg. Arkansas is the upper leg. Missouri is the torso. Iowa is the head. Minnesota is the hat. This was pointed out to me years ago and I've never been able to unsee it since.

[brevity]

Honorable mentions: Oklahoma (duh), Minnesota, Mississippi only because it looks like Bart Simpson's head doing a lookback, Maryland because it's on crack, maybe Oregon.


Best shape is the combination of Minnesota through Louisiana: it's an elf as viewed from the side. Louisiana is the foot/lower leg. Arkansas is the upper leg. Missouri is the torso. Iowa is the head. Minnesota is the hat. This was pointed out to me years ago and I've never been able to unsee it since.

If we're doing this, then I should point out that northern New Jersey resembles Mr. Magoo. (And Florida is Droopy.)

[hurleyfor3]

We're doing "what things do states look like"? Fine. (https://xkcd.com/1079/) Preferable to calling mods idiots, I guess, although I'm biased there.

[throatybeard]

Best shape is the combination of Minnesota through Louisiana: it's an elf as viewed from the side. Louisiana is the foot/lower leg. Arkansas is the upper leg. Missouri is the torso. Iowa is the head. Minnesota is the hat. This was pointed out to me years ago and I've never been able to unsee it since.

I have a friend who, she and her husband, they live in Iowa City or thereabouts. And they have since they escaped the Rio Grande Valley in about 1995.

He was the first one who attuned me to MIMAL. Apparently that's the acronym for what Wander is talking about.

[Reilly]

Mimal cooks fried chicken:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIMAL

[YmoBeThere]

1. What is your favorite U.S state shape? Hawaii - Oahu in particular

2. What is your favorite U.S. state name? Hawaii

[OldPhiKap]

We're doing "what things do states look like"? Fine. (https://xkcd.com/1079/) Preferable to calling mods idiots, I guess, although I'm biased there.

Is California a banana truck?

But California really should be two different states, anyway.

[Reilly]

I think California is a vacuum cleaner.

[devildeac]

1. New Jersey because it looks like a soldier (or Mr. Magoo as brevity observed up-thread).
2. New Jersey because JJ needed one or more of these just about every year he played for reasons discussed here before.

:D

[PSurprise]

And you are in Colorado?

I guess recent legislation keeps you out of being "square" though . . . .

(J/k, obviously. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah is absolutely beautiful country. Hope winter is okay for you)

I always wondered how they designed those square states. Did they get to the border and say to themselves, "this is far enough, let's turn 90 degrees and start over again".

[snowdenscold]

I always wondered how they designed those square states. Did they get to the border and say to themselves, "this is far enough, let's turn 90 degrees and start over again".

There's a show they have on every so often (there's only a few episodes of it) called "How the States Got Their Shapes." I forget if it's on History, Discovery, etc. but something in that range.


Edit: Ah, here it is:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772281/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[OldPhiKap]

I always wondered how they designed those square states. Did they get to the border and say to themselves, "this is far enough, let's turn 90 degrees and start over again".

I think that many of them were set on arbitrary latitude/longitude lines for ease of administration, as well as to set aside land for what's ere referred to at the time as "Indian Territory" for Native Americans in the western desert and plains (which of course got gobbled up as settlers and trains pushed West, and gold was found in The Black Hills and other places). Not enough rivers to easily act as boundaries like back East.

[kmspeaks]

Shape

West Virginia. I can't even believe there's a discussion after this.

There are states that are aware of their shape and others that aren't. Less than .66% of the population live in that state where they know their shape is awesome. All these arts and crafts in WV are WV -shaped



One of my favorite novelties of going to school in West Virginia was the way people told me where they were from. A rude hand gesture with the thumb stuck out for the panhandle makes a fairly accurate state map on which they'd point out their hometown.

[davekay1971]

Shape: North Carolina. Looks a little like a piece of pie. Who doesn't like pie?

Name: Mississippi. So much fun to learn to spell when you're a kid. You have to sing the letters. Try to spell it without getting some rhythm in your cadence.

[Reilly]

Name: Mississippi. So much fun to learn to spell when you're a kid. You have to sing the letters. Try to spell it without getting some rhythm in your cadence.

Where I learned to spell it (8:58 mark):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4GGQSdX_-M

[Edouble]

1. Texas: big strong shape, part boxy, part curvy.

2. Idaho: such a great punchline for dirty jokes.

[fidel]

1). New York. Nobody is confusing this one for Wyoming.

2). Connecticut. Crazy name.

[weezie]

Well, Michigan, of course, the useful mitten state. Hoping to find it's match somewhere in the bin of gloves.
Favorite name......uh state of confusion, where I tend to hang out a lot.

[BlueDevilBrowns]

1. What is your favorite U.S state shape?

2. What is your favorite U.S. state name?

(questions inspired by recent weather channel storm watching)

1. A tie between Vermont and New Hampshire.

Together they make an interesting numerical position, shall we say.

2. Franklin.

Oh, what might've been.

[OldPhiKap]

This being DBR, I should point out that Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia and Pennsylvania refer to themselves as commonwealths, not states.

We all know they're states. I just want to hear them own up to it. Until then, like out MOTH polls, I elect to choose wholly arbitrary barriers against otherwise eligible candidates.

[throatybeard]

Responses where I'm too lazy to use the quote function:

1) Yeah, North Carolina ain't bad either shapewise.

2) I've read Hawaii is the only one that doesn't have a straight line somewhere in its border. Not sure if it's true.

3) I love the visual majesty of the word MISSISSIPPI when spelled in all caps, and as a former resident of that state, I got to see this quite a bit. Take a look at the ribbon (?) of Davis-Wade stadium.

4) WIDukie doesn't really post here much anymore, but he likes to tell this one so I'll relate this for him. The reason WI is the shape it is is that the surveyors screwed up and mistook the St Croix River for the Mississippi River. Big gain on area for Minnesota. Also one of the prettiest towns in the US, Duluth, which looks like a 1/10-size Seattle was replanted on small mountains overlooking Lake Superior.

5) "Florida? But that's America's wang." --- Homer Simpson

[DevilAlumna]

1) Nebraska (easy to identify surrounded by squarish states.)

2) Delaware, primarily because of that silly song (What did Delaware, boys?)

[throatybeard]

1) Nebraska (easy to identify surrounded by squarish states.)

2) Delaware, primarily because of that silly song (What did Delaware, boys?)

Delaware is funny. It's a tiny state, second smallest after RI, if we aren't counting DC. Most I-95 type people's experience of it is driving through a 30-mile portion of it that isn't very representative of it, the turnpike.

But if you drive US 13/DE 1 through the Delmarva, it really does seem like a while that you're in DE. And it has some remarkably diverse architecture in it. And get this, America's best collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. It's probably more like Maryland's surprisingly hot little sister.