Perhaps we are defensive about our state because to disrespect our state is to disrespect us by association, for choosing to live there if for no other reason.
I’m kinda used to it, though - hey, Florida is the only state with its own Fark tag. 
But it doesn’t bother me because most of the time it seems that Florida detractors are simply jealous, especially in the wintertime. 
You mean your sister in law from Lawnguyland ? I think she’d have a harder time with that accent.
Tell her when I move to NYC for college a number of people took my accent for…French. I’m not kidding. Very strange, population intense part of the country.
(But the New Yorkers, after certain initiation rites, accepted me as one of their own.)
Last weekend, I met up with some other PC volunteers in a bigger city. Coincidentally, about half of them happened to be from California, where I grew up. They were teasing me for always telling people I’m from Chicago, when it is true that I lived in CA for 22 years and IL for 3. (But they were the last three! And it’s where I’m registered to vote!) I think it’s just because no one ever teases you about being from Chicago. Unless it’s to ask mock the “superfan”-style accent or the terrible corruption, both of which I find highly mockable myself. Whereas people have this idea of what California is like and it gets tiresome hearing jokes about it.
Not that I don’t crack jokes about people who fulfil these stereotypes, mind you. Every time I go back, I find myself snickering at all the cuckoo things people there do.
I’m intrigued - everyone’s heard of the newbie apprentice being sent to the hardware shop for left-handed screwdrivers and checkered paint, and Australians do the Dropbear thing and so on to foreigners, but what rites of initiation do New Yorkers impose on newcomers?
The sister in law is a native of Queens who insists she doesn’t have an accent at all. As a fellow Queens native I know otherwise.
My mom has a Bronx accent that made a college friend from Iowa break out in serious giggles. I think she would have laughed even harder if she’d heard my grandmother from the Bronx. The two of them together sounded like a Mel Brooks movie.
I do not really make fun of other people’s home towns (well, unless they are from Kokomo, Indiana - but that is just fun). I figure that I grew up in Flint, Michigan and that was so bad they made a movie about it. Who am I to judge?
It seems that several people can’t even tell Idaho from Iowa. Some people don’t seem to know we exist here. A local author/columnist even wrote a book about it, called “Is Idaho in Iowa?”, containing a compilation of dozens of examples of the confusion.
NJ native Draelin wrote:
Ah yes. The people who say “Why do you call it the Garden State, anyway?” Have you ever eaten a tomato? That’s why, jerkface.
I’ve eaten a tomato from Jersey.
Though I don’t think she’d like being called that.
Thank you! I’ll be here all week! Don’t forget to tip the veal and try your waitress!
I’m from Texas now. I guess it’s been long enough to say so… sigh
Look, he’s not my fault ok? I don’t like him, but I certainly couldn’t do anything to keep him here.
And I don’t have any cows, I’ve never ridden a horse, and my education did progress past the 5th grade…
And no, the word “y’all” doesn’t indicate brain damage. You swear to Og that you will never say it when you move here, but it…it seduces you with it’s convenience! You will say it if you live here. You might even say “howdy”. shudder
I like books! I enjoy opera! I don’t think of my state as entire country! AHHHHH!
But I may be in the minority
Well, I seem to have lived in a perfect trifecta of States To Make Fun Of: Utah-California-Ohio. I grew up in Utah, and in CA and OH people immediately ask very personal questions about religion and polygamy when I tell them where I am originally from.
Now I’m in OH, people also add the obligatory stupid remarks about California.
And, OH seems to have a rep for ass-backwardness and no one from the western U.S. knows where it is. Friends in CA: “Ohio: That’s right by South Dakota?”
Maybe I’ll move to Newark next . . .
Not many folks bother to mock Indiana (especially now that Bob Knight moved to Lubbock, Texas.) We make fun of ourselves. If you fly into Indianapolis, and the pilot doesn’t say, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are approaching Indianapolis. Set your watches back 15 years,” some native Hoosier on the plane will tell you about it.
I’m from Texas. :rolleyes:
It might be flat, but damn, we have some pretty big sky. And we have fewer morons driving 50-60 in the left lane.
We have the Van Cliburn competition.
I didn’t vote for him. Any time.
I miss the blast furnace heat, although I do NOT miss the mosquitoes. And up in my parts, it was a dry heat.
Oh, Lordy, Yes, Yes, Yes…
I lived in Mississippi for 13 years; when I moved there from NC, friends asked what the Hell was I thinking—from another Southern state, even!
I dearly love Mississippi, for it’s complexity, and what I learned there. As a born Californian, moved to NY, Maine, and raised in NC, and now back in NC, I still love MSPI the most. I can see moving back there. I led many blues researchers around, people from the US and Europe, as a guide, and was always amazed at the misconceptions held, with a superior attitude. Certainly, MSPI has had grave problems, but it has also moved beyond many of those problems at a more intricate understanding than other areas. Plenty of work to still be done, but nowhere near the vitriol given.
I’m from a smallish town in northern Nevada. It’s not the SMALLEST town we have - I’d wager the towns that have that claim are Wells, Gabbs and Jackpot. But it’s small, and relatively rural (but we’re getting a freeway, so I guess not THAT rural). I’m about thirty minutes south of Reno and twenty minutes east of Lake Tahoe.
That said, I’m extremely defensive about my hometown and state. People that have never been here before think Nevada is either all deserted dust or all Vegas, and it’s neither. People make fun of my town because if you’re under 21 the most you can do recreation wise is go hang out at Wal-Mart, which is a LOT more fun than it sounds if you have my sense of humor.
I resent it, really, I do. My quality of life here is awsome. This is a place where you can see the very best and very worst sides of humanity within ten minutes of each other; a place where you really can get shot if you walk around outside at dark in some areas of the town, but a place where in other neighborhoods you can leave your door unlocked at night. I love it here.
When I was 19 I moved to Reading, Pennsylvania for four months. It was the worst four months of my life, despite the fact that I had great friends out there. I was homesick, for both my family and my hometown. I spent the absolute worst week of my life driving back here, and let me tell you, it was worthless. I’ve seen a lot of the States in my 21 years; From Rhode Island to Texas to southern California. And there’s still nowhere I’d rather live.
So when people tease my state or town, you can be sure I’m going to get defensive. And please, don’t ask me if I’m near Vegas - it’s an 8 - 10 hour drive away.
~Tasha
Must…remember…to…hit…PREVIEW…
“Worthless” should be “Worth it.”
~Tasha
People make fun of West Virginia, but only if they realize it is a state. Yes, there are a lot of people who do NOT know that West Virginia is a separate state and not actually western Virginia.
I don’t think I get defensive about Ohio. It’s a pretty boring state with some of the stupidest politicians in history.