It is true that a few years back residents of New Mexico were required to have plague vaccinations if they planned to visit Egypt. Hope they don’t find out about our Hantavirus!
Jill
La tierra encantada
Neuro: Pretty much the same here in Mississippi. People snatch away their handshake like they’re gonna get a third world dose. A bit different, cause of the “Mexico” confusion…but from one poor state to another, when I say where I live, people start talking real slow, like there’s some language barrier. Hmmmm. Can you say Urban Provincial?
This could have caused some problems for a family I know; the father was born in Albuquerque in 1919 (the mother was born in Hermosa Beach, CA, in 1924). I went to high school with the daughter, then as now a real knockout. It would have been quite disconcerting to her and her two brothers if some bureaucrat or other simpleton were to label them as “children of a foreign national”!
Neuro, where you at in NM? I grew up in Nambe, a flyspeck next to Pojoaque, which was a flyspeck till they tore down my old elementary school to build the Cities of Gold casino…
And, incidentally, about the US Territories: I always thought the people of Guam were referred to as the Guamish. Oh well, learn something new…
I think they’re Guamanians, Max.
“If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge
I’ve looked it up: the correct term is “Guammie Bears.”
(yeah, the joke’s stolen from The Critic, so what?)
The alternative word for the native people of Guam is Chamorrans.
& Jophiel - here are two more “state” abbreviations used by your friendly U.S. Postal Service:
AA
AE
AP
Of course, the fun doesn’t end there; there are also two “city” names:
FPO
APO
Cheers!
-Chip
JillGat, sounds like a fun place to visit.
See our mountains, our wildlife, the inflated, pus-filled buboes you’ll have…
I’ll stick with “Guamanian.” My niece married one. 
Dougie is right, it is Guamanians, and while a majority of the islanders on Guam are Chamoros or Chamorons, a good number of the native people there are Carlonians(from the Western Carloline Islands south and east of Guam) and they seriously resent being called by the other island group name. Best to stick with Guamanians.
One more New Mexico story: When I moved there, my co-workers at my old job threw my wife and me a going away party and on the banner they printed up was “Bye TV and Winnie, come back to the U.S. when you can.”
Just a side note here, New Mexico was the 47th state to enter the union. Arizona was the 48th. Some confusion on that earlier.
From http://www.bibliofind.com
http://www.amazon.com lists it as out of print, but you might be able to find a used copy.
Oh, fair New Mexico. Home of Billy the Kid. Birthplace of the atom bomb. And still, nobody knows we exist.
You three guys dish this thread up from 1999.
Okay, you asked for it
YOU MIGHT BE FROM NEW MEXICO IF:
You buy salsa by the half-gallon.
You are still using the paper license tag that came with your car
five years ago.
Your favorite restaurant has a chile list instead of a wine list.
You do all your shopping and banking at a drive-up window.
Your Christmas decorations include “a yard of sand and 200 paper
bags”.
You have license plates on your walls but not on your car.
Most restaurants you go to begin with “El” or “Los”.
You remember when Santa Fe was not like San Francisco.
You hated Texans until the Californians moved in.
The tires on your roof have more tread than the ones on your car.
You price shop for tortillas.
You have an extra freezer just for green chile.
You think a red light is merely a suggestion.
You believe that using a turn signal is a sign of weakness.
You don’t make eye contact with other drivers because you can’t
tell how well armed they are just by looking.
You think six tons of crushed rock makes a beautiful front lawn.
You have to sign a waiver to buy hot coffee at a drive-up window.
You ran for state legislature so you can speed legally.
You pass on the right because that’s the fast-lane.
You have read a book while driving from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.
You know they don’t skate at the Ice House and the Newsstand
doesn’t sell newspapers.
You can’t control your car on wet pavement.
There is a piece of a UFO displayed in your home.
You know that The Jesus Tortilla is not a band.
You wish you had invested in the orange barrel business.
You just got your fifth DWI and got elected to the state
legislature in the same week.
Your swamp cooler got knocked off your roof by a dust devil.
You have been on TV more than three times telling about your
alien abduction.
You can actually hear the Taos hum.
All your out-of-state friends and relatives visit in October.
You think Vegas is a town in the northeastern part of the state.
You iron your jeans to “dress up”.
You don’t see anything wrong with drive-up window liquor sales.
Your other vehicle is also a pick-up truck.
Two of your cousins are in Santa Fe, one in the legislature the
other in the state pen.
You know the punch line to at least one Espanola joke.
Your car is missing a fender or bumper.
You have driven to an Indian Casino at 3am because you were hungry.
You think the Lobos fight song is “Louie, Louie”.
You know whether you want “red or green.”
You’re relieved when the pavement ends because the dirt road has
fewer pot-holes.
YOU MIGHT BE FROM NEW MEXICO IF:
You buy salsa by the half-gallon.
You are still using the paper license tag that came with your car
five years ago.
Your favorite restaurant has a chile list instead of a wine list.
You do all your shopping and banking at a drive-up window.
Your Christmas decorations include “a yard of sand and 200 paper
bags”.
You have license plates on your walls but not on your car.
Most restaurants you go to begin with “El” or “Los”.
You remember when Santa Fe was not like San Francisco.
You hated Texans until the Californians moved in.
The tires on your roof have more tread than the ones on your car.
You price shop for tortillas.
You have an extra freezer just for green chile.
You think a red light is merely a suggestion.
You believe that using a turn signal is a sign of weakness.
You don’t make eye contact with other drivers because you can’t
tell how well armed they are just by looking.
You think six tons of crushed rock makes a beautiful front lawn.
You have to sign a waiver to buy hot coffee at a drive-up window.
You ran for state legislature so you can speed legally.
You pass on the right because that’s the fast-lane.
You have read a book while driving from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.
You know they don’t skate at the Ice House and the Newsstand
doesn’t sell newspapers.
You can’t control your car on wet pavement.
There is a piece of a UFO displayed in your home.
You know that The Jesus Tortilla is not a band.
You wish you had invested in the orange barrel business.
You just got your fifth DWI and got elected to the state
legislature in the same week.
Your swamp cooler got knocked off your roof by a dust devil.
You have been on TV more than three times telling about your
alien abduction.
You can actually hear the Taos hum.
All your out-of-state friends and relatives visit in October.
You think Vegas is a town in the northeastern part of the state.
You iron your jeans to “dress up”.
You don’t see anything wrong with drive-up window liquor sales.
Your other vehicle is also a pick-up truck.
Two of your cousins are in Santa Fe, one in the legislature the
other in the state pen.
You know the punch line to at least one Espanola joke.
Your car is missing a fender or bumper.
You have driven to an Indian Casino at 3am because you were hungry.
You think the Lobos fight song is “Louie, Louie”.
You know whether you want “red or green.”
You’re relieved when the pavement ends because the dirt road has
fewer pot-holes.
Side note here: New Mexico has the lamest state song of any of the 50.
It was written by the daughter of Pat Garrett, the law officer who shot Billy the Kid and who was himself gunned down a couple of years later.
She considered herself something of a poet and no one had the nerve to tell her otherwise.
I get 4 notifications that someone has responded to this thread that I forgot I posted. 15 months after I started it.
Was someone bored and dug it out of the ancient thread archive? :D:D
Ah, resurrected threads!
Well, another “N” state which gets some trouble is Nebraska. At least when it comes to the postal abbreviation. More than once I’ve had people see the address and say “Oh, New England?” So I guess now that New England is a state, it’ll bring us back up to 50 without having to rope in New Mexico again.
One of my friends wanted an invite to my wedding, but we were out of printed ones, so I sent him an e-mail invite. (Don’t tell Miss Manners!) He thought it’d be close to DC, where we live. So when he saw “Bangor, ME”, he thought I meant Maryland and called me on it. (His statements are bold.)
"‘ME’ isn’t the abbreviation for Maryland, y’know," he told me.
“I know. ‘ME’ is Maine.”
"I thought Maine was ‘MA’."
“That’s Massachusetts.”
"That’s not ‘MS’?"
“Mississippi.”
"Not ‘MI’?"
“Michigan.”
"MN?"
“Minnesota.”
After that, he gave up. :D:D