People’s conception of size and also of importance is often a product of map scale rather than reality. Take, for example, which of these routes is longer: From Syracuse NY to Richmond VA, or from Orange TX to El Paso TX. The cross-Texas trip is nearly double the halfway-down-the-East-Coast one, 853 miles to 457.
While we’re on that subject, what is the largest state? “State” is defined in the U.S. meaning – second level unit in a federal government, constituent part of a federal nation but with residual sovereignty, and calling itself a state.
Answer: Western Australia. Alaska is only about two-thirds its land area.
Great game! I could name 49, only drew a blank on Iowa. Some states turned out to be in places I didn’t not quite expect them to be, though. I confused Georgia and Alabama, for example, even though I kinda knew about Mobile. But I have never been further south than Indiana.
I’m German, but I have been to North America several times. I think my interest in the region and the geographical knowledge I’ve picked up along the way are definitely above the German average.
I’d say almost everybody over here knows where California, Texas, Florida and New York are. Not so sure about places like Idaho or Vermont.
When foreign spammers register on my message board – most from India, Pakistan and the Philippines – they’ll usually put some variant of New York or Los Angeles in the location field, and it’s often butchered. Locations like “The Newyork”, “new city york”, “losanggles”, “holly wood”, and the like are a dead giveaway that it’s a spammer. They’ll sometimes use “Florida” or “California” alone as a location. I’ve never seen a spammer use Chicago, any other second-tier, third-tier and fourth-tier cities, or any states aside from NY, CA or FL; no “Des Moines, Iowa” or "Spokane, Washington.
I really do not think this is true, unless “more or less” encompasses “somewhere in America”. If you presented British people with a map of the USA and asked them to indicate where Nashville was, they would be pointing all over the place. There might be a vague general feeling that Nashville is somewhere in the East? I could give you that, maybe.
I know all 50 states off by heart and could probably name them all correctly on a blank map. I have noticed that other Irish people have a terrible grasp of US geography and commonly mistake Iowa, Ohio, Idaho and others that sound alike. And I would bet real cash that I could find people who have been to Chicago, NYC etc. but couldn’t place them on a map with ease.
I used to work at a bank call center. As one of the larger banks in the area we were one of a few with a toll free number. So people from all over would call and on more than one occation I had people from the US call and ask what the conversion rate to Hawaiian dollars would be. The first time I got this call, I said “We use US dollars as well.” To which she replied “Well that’s really convenient!” and hung up before I could correct her. I had a guy that didn’t believe me and called back THREE times trying to get different agents to tall him what kind of currency we use, and even if we accept US currency, what do we use for every day transactions. He wanted to buy “Hawaiian” money. I remember when I told him Hawaii was the 50th state, he said I was wrong, and that it was Alaska. he just sounded so certain I didn’t know what to say. He didn’t even doubt he was correct.
A friend of mine was dating a girl that moved to Hawaii because of her family. While everyone else was excited to move here, she was upset. Her parents chalked it up to wanting to attend the local college a lot of her high school friends were going to. They told her she could go to college in Hawaii. She told them it’d be a waste of time since American colleges don’t recognize degrees from Mexico. She thought Hawaii was some town in Mexico, and I’d always thought of her as rather well educated too. At least in other areas.
This reminds me, I used to work for a well-known (and now infamous) subprime mortgage banker. One of my coworkers was working on a loan for a guy in Hawaii; we were located in the Chicago suburbs.
It was early one day when my coworker - who sat on the other side of the cubicle wall, so I could easy hear his conversation - called up his client. They proceeded to have a chat, me listening on horror, and after he hung up, I was like “Rich, did you just call [client in Hawaii]?”
Rich: Yeah, why?
Me: It’s like 5:30 in the morning in Hawaii!
Rich: REALLY?
Actually, it’s not even a question of “city limit.” The postal service draws boundaries independent of actual municipal boundaries and they ensure that for the purposes of postal addresses, each “city, state,” combination is unique.
I recall hearing an interview on public radio about how the postal service has to deal with the fact that many Americans don’t have a good grasp of their own country’s geography.
Among the things mentioned was a letter addressed to someplace in “Ohidowa.”
Oh yeah, our postal service does that too. Where I live is officially, electorally and taxationally in London, but it’s actually in the county of Surrey, outside of London, as far as the Post is concerned. I never quite know what to say when they ask for “county” online or on paper. I usually go with the postal definition.
But the point is, mail will get to its destination if you use any format that can be reasonably understood. I could put “London” in my address, without a post code, and mail would still get here as long as the address was specific enough. We’re actually quite proud of it, and there are occasional stories in the press of the Royal Mail managing to deliver mail where the address is things like “Yellow house near Glasgow, next to a fallen tree”. It sounds like the US Postal service is a little more strict, and the address HAS to be <Street address> <Municipality> <State> <ZIP code> ?
The US Post Office will deliver anything humanly possible, too, but expect delays if it’s not in the standard format. Something like “Yellow house near Glasgow, next to a fallen tree” would probably take months at best, and if the fallen tree had gotten cleared away before then, might just end up damned to the Dead-Letter Office.
Well, it doesn’t HAVE to be, in the sense that if they can ascertain your intent, they will deliver it. But they do take significant steps to make it well k own what the “correct” format is.
Most people to follow the prescribed format, probably due go habit and some sense that there is a “right” way.
Personally, I rarely follow the exact format as set forth by the U.S.P.S. For example, i don’t use all caps; I don’t omit punctuation marks, and I refuse to use the state abbreviations. My mail arrives just fine.
