# "Midwest" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 7, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247 "2010-06-07T04:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/61 "2010-06-07T18:52:42Z")
This is precisely why we came up with the term “fly-over states”. Much less confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/62 "2010-06-07T18:56:42Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Ann Arbor (and Madison, WI) and other liberal-happy hippy college towns that are really sister cities to Berkelely, don’t count as “Midwest”. Is Chicago a “liberal-happy hippy college town” or does it get it’s own designation? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/63 "2010-06-07T18:57:52Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > sharks - no? There are no sharks in the Great Lakes _That you know of._ ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/64 "2010-06-07T19:02:54Z")
The best apples, sweet corn, and tomatoes in the world are grown in the midwest. I live in S. GA now, and these three are the things I miss most. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/65 "2010-06-07T19:32:01Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > So let’s clear this shit up straight away, ok? It’s the fucking Midwest. Get over yourself. > [@Kyla](#): > > Also, my BFF is French and doesn’t understand why Arizona isn’t part of the South. Is she right? Arizona is part of the Southwest. IME, “the South” generally refers to states (that were states at the time of the Civil War) that seceeded to join the Confederacy. > [@Rilchiam](#): > > That’s certainly the only time I’ve heard of kids not having toys as a “midwestern thing.” Anyone else? Born and raised in Milwaukee and have lived here since for over a quarter-decade now; I’ve never heard this. > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > The thread title made me think this was to pit the airline. Surely we have no quarrel with chocolate chip cookies? Midwest doesn’t exist anymore; or rather, it shortly won’t, even in name. And the true spirit of Midwest died years ago, when they stopped having two-across leather seats and real meals with real china and flatware. > [@MeanOldLady](#): > > And hot dish. WTF is hot dish? … Like, as in, “bring a hot dish to pass”? That would mean bring something that’s, you know, _hot_, versus something cold like a salad. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > I didn’t get any chocolate chip cookies last time I flew on Midwest (post their merger with Frontier). AFAIK, Midwest-Midwest flights still serve them. But a Midwest-operated-by-Frontier flight wouldn’t. > [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Any state qualifies as part of the Midwest where: > > - jazz is not played outside high schools > - people pull into or out of parking spots at less than 15mph > - lamb and veal are thought of as specialty meats > - 9 out of 10 people walking on any residential street have dogs > - there is more than one Dr Pepper-like soft drink available, but less than four > - a Honda built in Tennessee is considered a foreign car, but a Chevy made in Korea is not Guess Milwaukee isn’t part of the Midwest anymore, then. > [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Listen to this man, for he is bitter, but wise. You get 1/2 block outside of these seemingly normal (but cold) enclaves, and you’d swear you entered East Hicksville, Kentucky. Welcome to _everywhere in the fucking country_. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/66 "2010-06-07T19:37:05Z")
If you drive five miles east of Los Angeles, you do not find yourself smack dab in the middle of Jesus town. Fives miles outside of Minneapolis, and you’ll be cold, terrified, and hoping you’ll make it out alive. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/67 "2010-06-07T19:39:31Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > … Like, as in, “bring a hot dish to pass”? That would mean bring something that’s, you know, _hot_, versus something cold like a salad. Hotdish isn’t a reference to temperature. It’s a [casserole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotdish). And it’s not a term used all over the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/68 "2010-06-07T19:41:37Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Ann Arbor (and Madison, WI) and other liberal-happy hippy college towns that are really sister cities to Berkelely, don’t count as “Midwest”. But you get ten miles outside of one of these towns and you are in a different world. An alien world. A place…beyond imagination. A dimension measuring not of distance and time, but flatness and blandness. In a few minutes, Ms. **Kyla** will find herself in this dimension; a place we call…the Midwest Zone. > > Stranger Flatness? Outside of Madison? Pshaw! That’s the [Driftless Area.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driftless_Area) Dairy farmers have to use use flat-sided milking cans, or else if they get kicked over and start rolling they’ll never be seen again. No ethic food? Here’s the dinner menu at [Mader’s restaurant in Milwaukee.](http://www.madersrestaurant.com/menu-dinner.html) Here’s [Tony Paco’s in Toledo.](http://www.tonypacko.com/menu.php) And the bar food in Wisconsin? Swiss cheese and brown mustard on rye; cabbage rolls, pickled eggs, pickled herring, landjaeger sausage: a smoked sausage that’s been cured into beef jerky. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/69 "2010-06-07T19:44:33Z")
nevermind, I got nuthin’. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/70 "2010-06-07T19:55:47Z")
Incidentally, I feel a little guilty using the term “ethnic food”, since, just as everyone has an accent, everyone has an ethnicity. So let me clarify what I think we all understand “ethnic food” to be code for: non-white people food. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/71 "2010-06-07T19:58:01Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > One could claim you’re just gerrymandering out the parts of the Midwest that don’t meet your preconceptions, though, No True Scotsman-style… Supposing they claimed the more rural or less cosmopolitan parts of every state as accordingly part of the Midwest. Should the term lose all coherence as a simply-connected geographic region? You want California’s Central Valley? You can have it. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/72 "2010-06-07T19:58:39Z")
Yes, I assumed Bakersfield was going to come up at some point. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/73 "2010-06-07T20:16:47Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I have some vague notions about it, but I was still living in my cave in Eastern Europe at the time. Well, here’s the basics (and someone correct me if I’m wrong)–Obama was addressing a group of farmers in Iowa and was trying to say something about how some crops sell at really high prices. He mentioned arugula prices at Whole Foods. Some commentators tried to use this as evidence that Obama was an elitist who ate highfalutin salad greens and clearly couldn’t relate to a heartland farmer. After all, why would he think that these “real Americans” have ever even heard of exotic greens such as arugula and bleeding-heart liberal stores such as Whole Foods?" Which led to a lot of angry rebuttals from Iowans. They were like “what do you think we are? Stupid? We may not eat a lot of arugula, and we may not have a Whole Foods in the state, but we know what they _are_ for pete’s sake!” Anyway, it was an interesting episode in the campaign as it illustrated a lot of the various tensions and subtexts and so forth. Personally, I think it was terribly insulting to Iowans. Obama could indeed have presented it better because his comments did fall flat with the crowd he was addressing. But not because these people were scared of salad greens other than iceberg lettuce. > [@california\_jobcase](#): > > The best apples, sweet corn, and tomatoes in the world are grown in the midwest. I live in S. GA now, and these three are the things I miss most. Don’t be ridiculous. The best tomatoes are grown in New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/74 "2010-06-07T20:49:08Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > I was given to understand that Pittsburgh is in the “Midwest”, which is obviously further east than Ohio. Didn’t make sense to me when I heard it, but neither does National League division alignment. I mean, the Braves in the East, and Pittsburgh in the Central? Well, the Braves used to be in the National League West, while the Pirates were in the East. But the alignment is right now. It’s topography, not longitude. The first major division between the East and the (Mid)West are the Allegheny and Cumberland Mountains. Pittsburgh is west of the beginning of this first westward frontier; Atlanta is east and south. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/75 "2010-06-07T21:21:26Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > I was given to understand that Pittsburgh is in the “Midwest”, which is obviously further east than Ohio. Didn’t make sense to me when I heard it, but neither does National League division alignment. I mean, the Braves in the East, and Pittsburgh in the Central? What up wit’ dat? The current alignment is geographically sound. New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Miami, and Atlanta, are all geographically to the east of all the other cities with clubs in the league. Prior to 1994, Atlanta and Cincinnati were in the western division and Chicago and St. Louis were in the eastern division. It made no sense. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/76 "2010-06-07T21:25:56Z")
I thought hotdish was a Minnesota term, not a more general Midwestern (ha!) one. My stepdad is from there, I had never heard it before he came along. I grew up on several variations of the dish, all called “casserole.” Yum. And bars are awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/77 "2010-06-07T21:42:23Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Incidentally, I feel a little guilty using the term “ethnic food”, since, just as everyone has an accent, everyone has an ethnicity. So let me clarify what I think we all understand “ethnic food” to be code for: non-white people food. Or “Stuff White People [ironically] Like”. > [@MeanOldLady](#): > > If you drive five miles east of Los Angeles, you do not find yourself smack dab in the middle of Jesus town. Fives miles outside of Minneapolis, and you’ll be cold, terrified, and hoping you’ll make it out alive. Actually, most of the freaky Jesus types can be found right on Hollywood and Sunset, screeching out doom and destruction to passers-by, which is why most residents know to take the north/south streets in and out of the area between Fairfax and Western. > [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > You want California’s Central Valley? You can have it. CV was originally a part of Kansas and Nebraska that was reallocated as a little known side provision of the Gadsden Purchase. Culturally and linguistically it is still classified as being a part of the Midwest despite its present location between the Coastal Ranges and the Sierra Nevadas, and in fact recent researches by leading geophysical cosmologists have detected stable wormholes between Fresno and Dubuque, Sacramento and Topeka, Redding and Sioux Falls, and Modesto and Joplin. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/78 "2010-06-07T21:48:14Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > If you drive five miles east of Los Angeles, you do not find yourself smack dab in the middle of Jesus town. Fives miles outside of Minneapolis, and you’ll be cold, terrified, and hoping you’ll make it out alive. LA sprawls a hell of a lot more. You can’t just call the city limits the “end” of it. You bet your ass rural California is just as weird as rural Minnesota. (I should know–I have family who live there.) > [@acsenray](#): > > Hotdish isn’t a reference to temperature. It’s a [casserole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotdish). And it’s not a term used all over the Midwest. Ignorance fought. Why the hell can’t they just call it a casserole like normal people? > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > No ethic food? Here’s the dinner menu at [Mader’s restaurant in Milwaukee.](http://www.madersrestaurant.com/menu-dinner.html) :rolleyes: Come visit sometime, and I’ll take you to a \*single block \*where you have to choose among [the best Thai](http://tringtring.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/ee-sane-menu-milwaukee-wi/) (technically Thai-Lao), [the best Middle Eastern](http://www.monasrestaurant.net/) (Turkish), and [the best East African](http://ethiopiancottage.com/) (Ethiopian) in the city. > [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Obama was addressing a group of farmers in Iowa and was trying to say something about how some crops sell at really high prices. He mentioned arugula prices at Whole Foods. He should have just called it rocket lettuce. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/79 "2010-06-07T21:48:24Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > The current alignment is geographically sound. New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Miami, and Atlanta, are all geographically to the east of all the other cities with clubs in the league. Atlanta is actually further west than Pittsburgh. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247/80 "2010-06-07T22:40:01Z")
Complaining about the midwest not being far enough west is as stupid as complaining that the middle east isn’t far enough east. I mean shouldn’t it be in the middle of China or something? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/midwest/542247.md?page=5)