The NYTimes 25-question American Language Guess-Where-You're-From map/algorithm

I’d like to see the geographic distribution of answers to this question:

What do you call the headlight setting used on dark roads with no oncoming traffic?

  1. Brights
  2. High beams
  3. Other

The correct answer is, of course, “high beams”. I grew up in suburban Connecticut and NYC / Long Island.

High Beams here (NE Ohio).

For me it guessed Phoenix, AZ, and two cities near there.

I live in Nebraska and have for 30-plus years now.

So that is kinda weird. :slight_smile:

High beams in Arkansas as well.
Strange to agree with Long Island, I was married to one and we occasionally could not understand each other. :slight_smile:

Nailed me as a combination of New York and Philadelphia. Go Central Jersey!

I use both terms. Chicago, IL. I couldn’t tell you if one is more popular than the other. I think “brights” is perhaps the more common one, as the phrase “flash your brights” sounds slightly more natural to me than “flash your high beans,” although I can’t say for sure.

Both sound equally fine, the first is more colloquial. Like something a mechanic or tuner might use. But I was just thinking of this distinction a day or two ago!

It nailed me perfectly: Omaha, Overland Park, KS, and Aurora, CO. I’m a little surprised it was so accurate since I say “soda” instead of “pop,” which is idiosyncratic for Nebraska, but there you go.

And over in the other corner of the state, we also favor this (though it’s not unusual to say “brights” also).

The results for the Canadians taking the test are interesting - maybe we have too many “others,” so we get virtually random results.

I would call that a Mickey Mouse course.

They’d be “brights” here

I had trouble ordering in a Burger King in Pennsylvania years ago - I wanted a Sprite with my meal, and the cashier kept saying Coke. No, not a Coke, a small Sprite! Yes, that’s what I said - a small Coke. Gah!

Washington, DC and Arlington are the area I grew up in, so pretty good. Durham, NC though?

My dad might too, but I’ve never heard anyone else say that.

It’s used in NYC. I’m fairly sure I figured out what it meant what might more formally be called a ‘newsagent’ from watching countless hours of Law & Order. I’ve also heard it in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods in and around Boston, but it may be a transplant from New York.

It pegged me as being from Boston, though I think you only need the “what do you call a round traffic thingy?” question to do that.

That’s strange. Calling sweetened carbonated beverages Cokes is more of a Southern thing. In PA, it’s either soda or pop.

Newark / Paterson, New York and Baltimore.

It didn’t stand a chance, since I’m from South Africa. But I have been living in the US for over 9 years now (mostly in Georgia and California).

At a gas station in Pa, I could not understand a damn thing the cash register guy said.

Well, I took it again and had a few different questions to answer.

I’m now from Minneapolis / St. Paul. It was the “kitty-corner” answer that placed me there apparently.

Oh, and BTW, it’s a “bird course!”

I had never heard the term tree lawn until I lived in NE. In southern MN we called it a boulevard. And the strip of grass and trees in the middle of a street we call a parkway.

For me I see I’ve been strongly influenced by my mother’s side of the family from IA.

Maybe she was a transplant. :slight_smile: