I always find that people from other states are greatly amused when I do this. I always tell them they’re lucky I’m not from Florida.
Some facts about Rhode Island, where I grew up:
It is the smallest U.S. state, but has the longest name (“The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”).
It was the first of the original thirteen colonies to declare independence from Great Britain (May 4, 1776) and the last to join the United States (May 29, 1790).
This is an odd one, but bear with me: Rhode Island’s ratio of total miles of ocean shoreline to total square miles of land area is much larger than any other state’s, justifying its nickname as “The Ocean State”.
Nope, New York did that, too.
Welome to Massachusetts. Please drive carefully. (This will identify you as a tourist.)
MA once had the distinction of being the only state where same sex marriage was legal.
We have the lowest ZIP code, 01001.
We have the only bridge in the US whose length is measured in smoots.
We have the longest place name, Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.
I’m still trying to determine if we’re the only state that has a habitable house made entirely out of newspaper.
I’m originally from NJ, now in Massachusetts. We still have Jughandles here (although they’re not often called that). There’s one not far from me. They also have traffic circles here, only they call them “rotaries”.
Some towns here have ordinances against pumping your own gas, too. But it’s not a statewide thing.
Masachusetts used to be the only state with Patriot’s Day, but Maine and Wisconsin (!!) have it now, too.
Oh, well, we’re still the only state with Evacuation Day, which conveniently falls on St. Patrick’s Day
I thought we’re the only state with the not-well-understood Blinking Green Light. It’s not like in Canada, where Blinking Green means and Advance Green. Here it means — well, nobody seems to know. But you’re probably not supposed to drive right through it. So everyone does. But it turns out that Delaware has this, too.
That reminds me – Rhode Island is the only U.S. state that still celebrates V-J Day (although they now call it Victory Day).
Nebraska!
Home of Arbor Day!
Huskers! Go Big Red!
Unicameral, bitches! You don’t even know!
This is a question: Is California the only state whose state animal is extinct, or extinct within the borders of the state?
This is not a question: Texas is the only state whose political representatives have IQs measured in negative numbers.
Badwater can be fairly warm even in the winter while the rest of DV is on the cold side. I had to put on dark glasses, apply Chapstick, and take a bottle of water with me to explore Badwater about 2 years ago in February. The glare of the sun on all that salt is tremendous, and the salt seems to come up into the air somehow.
Texas is the only state that has had a senator and governor who was once a foreign head of state.
We have the Everglades, there may be other states with wetlands but they are not the same as the Glades.
Bubblers in Australia and New England too? Excellent!
Absolutely! Very common, especially among those of us who frequent antique malls.
I play euchre frequently with many friends from Pennsylvania.
Is Ohio the only state with an official fossil?
Although not the official state animal, Vermont loves catamounts (ie, cougars) and they haven’t been in these parts in a hundred years or so.
Hmm…a lot of the Vermont stuff has already been mentioned…
Vermont is the largest producer of maple syrup in the US, and second largest in the world (though to be fair, how many countries other than US and Canada make maple syrup?)
Vermont has the highest number of breweries and brewpubs per capita in the US.
Although Vermont wasn’t the first state the abolish slavery (RI was,) it was the first to do so in it’s constitution…
Vermont is often ranked the healthiest place to live in the US (seven times at #1 in the past eight years.)
Alabama has produced at least two women who were married to foreign heads of state: Margaret Lea (Mrs. Sam Houston) and Henrietta Boggs-McGuire (formerly Mrs. Jose “Don Pepe” Figueres [though she was never first lady as they divorced before he became president]).
Nope: New York also has one: Cryptolithus, a trilobite.
Slightly more than that, now; the number of Rangers was recently increased from 118 to 134.
Fossil, Bah.
Colorado was the first with an official state dinosaur. The Stegosaurus, Thagomizer and all.
You have the lowest zip code in the 50 states. The Virgin Islands are the 008 zip codes.
Illinois, I think, is the only place where people say come with without an object of the preposition. I hate it.
Missouri elected a corpse as US Senator.
The only reason why this didn’t get more attention was there was something amiss in Florida at the time.