# Misconceptions about USA **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 19, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510 "2003-09-19T00:33:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/221 "2003-09-24T10:53:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aryk29 \* > **Marshmallows on potatos! :eek: Give me butter or sour cream any day.** [Sweet potatoes](http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/chooseandhandle.htm) are different from potatoes; they’re generally deep orange in color and more strongly flavored. Sweet potatoes are similar to yams, but [are not the same](http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-23-a.html) (despite the tendency of some people to refer to sweet potatoes as “yams”). Marshmallows on regular potatoes would indeed be unpleasant. ---
**Author:** ![Ironikinit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Ironikinit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ironikinit)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/222 "2003-09-24T11:46:36Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t know if you have Fry’s Electronics in Australia, but the nearest ones from here are in Portland and Sacramento. Outback Australians will always win a “distance to the nearest shopping center” contest. Distance to nearest doctor, pharmacy, school, and gas station contests as well. Americans from the Alaskan interior, Siberians, and Canadians from the Arctic Circle may have a chance, but that’s about it. Australia has a much lower population density than the United States. It’s size is slightly smaller than the contiguous lower 48, yet the population of Australia is about a fifteenth of America’s. Over 90% of Australia’s population is urbanised (mostly along a thin strip along the southeast coast) which leaves huge areas almost completely unpopulated. I doubt Australian families living in remote areas have outstanding access to consumer electronics outlets. The low population is a good thing in a country that’s prone to drought, IMO. It must be tough for those living way the hell out there, though. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/223 "2003-09-24T12:01:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Americans from the Alaskan interior… I can’t back this up, but I have the impression that many people think Texas is the largest state. Amusing factoid: If Alaska were divided into two equal-sized states, Texas would be America’s _third_ largest state. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/224 "2003-09-24T12:15:36Z")
> [@](#): > > **Johnny L.A.** , does he live on the scenic route? 😃 He says you can see his house from the freeway. I’ve always been in too much of a hurry, or it’s been too late, to stop. My Location is the title of a Harlan Ellison short story. (But I’ve seen the “Scenic Route” signs in Grants Pass.) ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/225 "2003-09-24T12:22:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cajela \* > \*\ ***aryk29** - > What, only several hundred miles? Try Perth or Adelaide or Darwin or Brisbane or Alice Springs… > > Check this for distances from Perth to many places - the ones in CAPS are major cities. > [http://www.geocities.com/profemery/entertainment/distance-from\_perth.html](http://www.geocities.com/profemery/entertainment/distance-from_perth.html) > > I mean - to Aussies, the US looks very full. To you, it looks normal. To Europeans, it look amazingly empty. \*\* As P J O’Rourke put it - you can’t swing a cat in Europe without sending it through Customs. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/226 "2003-09-24T13:18:39Z")
It’s the way many maps are drawn that gives some people the mistaken idea that Alaska isn’t huge. The scale gets changed, you see. especially so in atlases like the Rand McNaly Road Atlas. If the scale remains the same, it’s very easy to see that Alaska is so huge that it dwarfs even Texas. Looks like Alaska is between 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the entire lower 48. California and Texas _are_ gigantic, though. Driving across them, you will actually go through different climates. Several different climates. I think that’s cool. Texas is so big, it allows for regional predjudices _within_ the state! (All good natured, of course. Wel… good natured by me. Some people take it way too seriously) In South Texas, we called people from Dallas, Damn Yankee Texans. Panhanddlers are a breed unto themselves. East Texas is fantasticaly rural, even though there are towns evry 6 miles. Texas Hill Country is where God vacations. It’s that pretty. West Texas is another planet, and the Texas Rio Grand Valley is still the most fertile part of Mexco. Someone else do California, I haven’t lived there in years. ---
**Author:** ![dakravel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@dakravel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dakravel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/227 "2003-09-24T15:15:36Z")
The South has no concept of weather. They come up to North California and say things like, “Gosh is it always this hot/cold?”, “It’s raining soooooo much, how do you deal with this?” (after maybe a few hours of somehwat heavy sprinkling), “There are so many bugs here!”, and so forth. Not criticizing, just over-generalizing :P. Not much to be said about the central area, it’s really only the North and South that have set stereotypes and such. The North says ‘hella’ quite a bit, that seems to really bother the students that come from LA and SD :). The weather here actually is somewhat atrocious, blazing hot summers, freezing cold (but not snowing) winters, with lots and lots of rain. We all secretly weep because the Southern farmers and the Southern people in general all steal our precious water :(. There are a bunch of stereotypes about the Northern and Southern populations in California, but given the size and diversity of California in general, it’s to be expected. Also, my comments here do not necessarily hold for everyone, I’m sure there are South Californians that’ll disagree with me, or even North Californians, I’m just offering my limited view on it all. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/228 "2003-09-24T17:08:29Z")
Former Davis-ite, myself, **dakravel** , I just moved from there a few weeks ago 🙂 He’s right about the Northern California vs Southern California, that’s mostly all the stereotyping I’ve ever heard. Southern Californians are all vapid, vain, appearance-obsessed, skinny, blonde, liposuctioned, plastic-nosed, and rich, while Northern Californians are, of course, all pot-smoking hippies and/or farmers.\* Except for The People’s Republic of Davis, which is a whole world in and of itself. Still highly populated with pot-smoking hippies, though 🙂 The only other stereotyping I’ve ever heard is the whole San Francisco bit, which I’m sure you’re all quite aware of. About the regional thing, I’d say it goes something like this: [ul] [li]Southern California – everything from San Diego and the Mexican border up to, say, Tulare. [/li][li]Central Coast – Santa Barbara and SLO up to Santa Cruz, but only including the costal region. Everything else is considered Northern California.[/li][li]Northern California – Fresno on up. [/li][/ul] You are also welcome to refer to anything from San Jose and Santa Clara up to Marin County and maybe even Sonoma as the Bay Area, definitive from Northern and Southern California, should you so desire. Yes, I’m aware this has little basis in geographic reality, but, that’s what we call ourselves, so there. Neener, neener. ~Mixie \*The Southern California thing is a joke, so don’t hate me. The Northern California stereotype is, of course, completely accurate 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CaptBushido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@CaptBushido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptBushido)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/229 "2003-09-24T17:18:06Z")
Hey, NoClueBoy, give me a south Texas opinion: do you consider people from Lubbock - West Texans or Panhandlers? We always call ourselves West Texans, but geographically that doesn’t seem very accurate. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/230 "2003-09-24T17:27:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\*It’s the way many maps are drawn that gives some people the mistaken idea that Alaska isn’t huge. The scale gets changed, you see. especially so in atlases like the Rand McNaly Road Atlas. > > If the scale remains the same, it’s very easy to see that Alaska is so huge that it dwarfs even Texas. Looks like Alaska is between 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the entire lower 48. > \*\* From [here](http://www.usarak.army.mil/DPW/Alaska.asp) > [@](#): > > Alaska is enormous. A land mass spanning 586,400 square miles, that is about one-fifth as large as the “lower forty-eight” and its 3,022,387 square miles. It may look to be 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the lower 48 because standard map projections exaggerate the relative size of the extreme northern and southern regions of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/231 "2003-09-24T17:36:08Z")
I seriously want to move to Alaska now. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/232 "2003-09-24T18:01:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CaptBushido \* > \*\*Hey, NoClueBoy, give me a south Texas opinion: do you consider people from Lubbock - West Texans or Panhandlers? We always call ourselves West Texans, but geographically that doesn’t seem very accurate. \*\* Yeah, Lubbock is an anomoly, ain’t it? While seeming to be in the Panhandle, everything about it screams West Texas! To me, Lubbock has that ranch feel of West, without the being on another planet feel of the Panhandle. Maybe I’m predjudiced because of having to work so much in the Ammarillo area (PaceSetter windows and doors), but that part of Texas just weirds me out. ## Is Lubbock still in a dry county? Or am I thinking Oddessa? Man, I’ve done so many jobs all over Texas (home and restaurant remodel), I sometimes get mixed up. **amarone** , is it the Mercator Projection? I think that’s what it’s called, skews things that are extremely North (or South). What I was talking about in the first part, tho, was changing the scale all together. Like from 1 inch = 25 miles to 1 inch = 250 miles. _That_ really messes up people’s comparisons when they don’t think about it. And, yes, I was looking at a flat projection map myself, not taking into accout the projection. Silly me. :smack: On my globe, it looks like the scale you your link proves. (Still big, though) ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/233 "2003-09-24T21:53:30Z")
**Johnny L.A.** , I probably bump into him every week at the grocery store. Ask him if he’s ever seen the place with all the different colored doors. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/234 "2003-09-25T01:21:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NoClueBoy \* > \*\*Someone else do California, I haven’t lived there in years. \*\* Southern California is mainly desert, mountains and steppes. Northern California (anything above Bakersfield) has a lot of different climates from coastal forests to the high Sierras and other fun stuff. Culturally, it’s night and day. Northern Californians see southern Californians as their evil twin. A NoCal father would never want to see his daughter marry a SoCal guy. To them, southern Californians are shallow, vain, politically unsophistacted and naive, uninformed, culturally lacking, and generally irresponsible. Southern Californians, on the other hand, have heard rumors that there’s a city somewhere up there in all that fog. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/235 "2003-09-25T03:03:26Z")
I still find it geographically funny that SFers consider themselves northern californians.(I say as I wear my NorCal hoodie sweatshirt that my ex bought me in Berkeley.) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/236 "2003-09-25T03:07:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 5-HT \* > \*\*I still find it geographically funny that SFers consider themselves northern californians.(I say as I wear my NorCal hoodie sweatshirt that my ex bought me in Berkeley.) \*\* What’s even funnier are the throngs of Manhattanites who insist that “upstate New York” is everything north of the Bronx. Yeah, I grew up in Westchester, not Albany, for chrissakes. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/237 "2003-09-25T04:27:16Z")
Upstate doesn’t start until at _least_ Poughkeepsie. And even Poughkeepsie’s pushing it. If it’s on the NYC commuter rail line, it ain’t upstate. And, of course, there’s upstate and then there’s _northern_ New York. I’m only from upstate, but I have family from the north country. A lot of people seem to think that all of New York State is either made up of New York City (like it’s just a gihugic sprawling urban mass of doom), or that it is at least completely urbanized. These people tend to gape when they learn I grew up in a trailer in a cornfield on a dairy farm next door to an apple orchard and half an hour from the grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/238 "2003-09-25T04:31:51Z")
Well, things are slowly changing, Friedo. I now hear that upstate doesn’t truly begin until you pass White Plains. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/239 "2003-09-25T04:58:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by racinchikki \* > \*\*…half an hour from the grocery store. \*\* Ah, you were on the D train… ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510/240 "2003-09-25T14:26:54Z")
Here’s another misconception: Apparently a lot of non-Americans seem to think that Americans are all either blonde with blue eyes or black. Anything else can sometimes provoke a: “no, but where are you _really_ from?” It doesn’t occur to a lot of people that ethnic identity and national identity can be different, or that someone who looks Indian, Chinese, Arab, etc. could be born and raised in the US, and consider themselves 100% American. (Granted, there are a lot of Americans who have trouble with this concept too…) ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misconceptions-about-usa/202510.md?page=13)