Basically Americans are isolationists (us not the govt.)We don’t think or care about other countries much. W e assume that everybody we are typing with is a U.S.of American. We certainly don’t think about whether our familar abbreviations are familiar to every one. Aside, I never used to get “are we there yet” when driving with the kids. But I used to get “what town is this?’,Sometimes the answer had to be"We aren’t in a town we are in the country.” " Oh,what country is it?" I eventually got to paying attention so I could tell them what COUNTY we were in,except in LA ,uh,Louisiana . Also i can’t spell Miss. vs Mississippisipissipi. When I lived in New Mexico it was not at all unusual to have a phone conversation with some supplier who would politly apologize that they did not ship international orders.Even after I repeated and even spelled the name.They were not just not hearing the NEW.
I always say I am from Dallas. Everyone seems to know where Dallas is. Sometimes I just say D/FW or Big D.
Oh come on, our Salvation Army could kick thier ass.
I apologize for that. I heard a comedian say it once and I have always wanted to say it.
That has always been my beef too I think having letters and numbers was such a stupid idea since letters sound similar and makes people have to say my postal code is M like Mary 1 K like Kenneth etc. It does however make sence since M for instance is all of Toronto and so on but it is damn confusing when giving the code to someone.
I honestly think they did it that way just to be different from the US, but when someone asks me on-line where I live I still say Toronto, not ON…
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Dandmb50@aol.com
I hate Canadian Postal codes cause you have to hit the shift key and it slows you down typing to go to number CAPITAL LETTER number etc. All numbers keeps my WPM average higher.
Ok, here goes.
The Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut are all territories. All the rest (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) are provinces. There is a slight distinction between provinces and territories, chiefly that Ottawa has a greater influence on territorial governing than in provincial.
Prince Edward Island is indeed a province, the smallest in Canada, and has been for a very long time. Even if it were a part of another province, it would probably be a part of New Brunswick, to which it has recently been connected by the Confederation Bridge. But it is quite separate.
The province of Newfoundland is composed of the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the mainland, and for that reason is sometimes called Newfoundland and Labrador. But it is one province.
When I am telling someone where I am orginally from, I say “Kankakee County, Illinois.” I spent the first 11 years of my life in the small town of Bonfield but hardly anyone outside the county, and quite a few inside, has ever heard of it.
“Age is mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” -Leroy “Satchel” Paige
According to Canada Post <www.mailposte.ca>
Canda has 12 province codes, corresponding to our (United States) State codes, such as QC for Quebec and SK for Saskatchewan.
Canadian postal codes are always listed in the same format: K1A 0B1, for example. The sequence is always Alphabetical character/Number/Alpha (full space) Number/Alpha/Number. Each code represents a specific geographic location, ranging from one side of a city block to a specific company which receives large volumes of mail.
The significant character in their postal code is the first one which refers to a
province or territory. The letters W and Z are not used as the first letters of
postal codes; D, F, I, O, Q, and U are never used in Canadian postal codes.
For the most part the remaining 18 characters refer to provinces, but a few refer to
cities ( Toronto and Montreal). Of the provinces only Quebec and Ontario are further
divided into Quebec (G), Quebec West (J), Eastern Ontario (K), Central Ontario (L),
Southwestern Ontario (N), and Northern Ontario §. This of course ignores their special Postal codes such as H0H 0H0 for Xmas and other holidays.
Regarding the flak about “Commonwealth” versus “state”: The Constitution, by its own terms (the 7th Article) would not go into effect until it was ratified by three-fourths of the original thirteen “states”: in other words, nine. When New Hampshire ratified the Constitution, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts (“commonwealths” both), had already ratified it; so as far as the Constitution itself was concerned, Pennyslvania and Massachusetts were both “states” for legal purposes, and I believe it is safe to assume that Kentucky (1792)and Virginia (1788) were also “states.” Cecil Adams took this topic up in “Return of the Straight Dope.”
Personally i say “Monterey” (Because my hometown, Marina is not well known), then i get people fron New York, or eastern states who say “Where?” so then i have to clarify,and say “California”. Then they say “oh”, which leads to stupid questions about celebrities and other things…
Anyway, to answer the original question, most Americans say their state because a lot don’t live in big recognizeable cities (like, those of us in Central California, where the nearest well known city is 100 - 200 miles to the north). If you asked me where i’m from i would say California (not abbreviated), but if you asked me where i lived i would say Marina.
I’m from Maryland right outside of DC. When people ask me where I’m from I say DC - I don’t say the name of the town because nobody has ever heard of it, and I don’t say I’m from Maryland because then people think of Baltimore, which is much further away from my hometown than DC is.
Actually I suppose now they’d probably think of Burkittsville, which is even further.
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.
Exactly ruadh! No one’s ever heard of my town either, except for people who live here. (Burtonsville and Silver Spring aren’t too big.) And the area around DC is very different from the area around Baltimore.
Falcon: Largo. You?
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.
oh duh, I just saw Burtonsville, I was reading too fast and thought you were just referring back to Burkittsville, never mind.
(feels stupid now)
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.
Exactly, that is my point.
It seems to me that americans think they are the only country in the world and I like the USA but common guys you are one small country in the world no matter how big your heads are. It seems the world is hearing more and more about your country nearly every day lately, unfortuneately I feel those jerks are a very very small minority.
Please feel free to email me
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Drat. I thought I could resist adding my two cents, but I find my hand drawn to the keyboard…
Ok, PQ doesn’t stand for Province of Quebec. It stands for Province de Quebec. Pronounced: proVAINSs duh k(w)ayBECK, and it’s (surprise) French.
so THERE.
-trilingual Canadian
I guess some people are just in the habit of using acronyms without thinking whether they’ll be understood.
Is Labrador the 11th province? I’m having trouble even locating it on maps I’ve looked at. Is it that roughly triangular area of mainland N.E. of Quebec, which, together with the island of Newfoundland makes up the province of Newfoundland?
That ‘roughly triangular’ bit is, indeed, Labrador. (The province is often (officially? I, as a Newfoundlander am ashamed to admit I don’t know this…) referred to as Newfoundland and Labrador.)
So, there’s still only 10 provinces and 3 territories.
‘They couldn’t hit an Elephant from this dist…!’
Last words of General John Sedgwick
Well ver good you caught me there and ICQ I don’t even know what it means. After reading these posts you have all made me re-consider my position because in all honesty I see what you mean now. I mean I even admit that I sometimes have a runny nose and reach for a “kleenex” it’s actually a facial tissue, or after I relieve myself I pull up my ??
“zipper” wrong again it is a metal fastner Zipper and Kleenex were brand names of the products and we (the people) used the word so much it started to be the word for the thing.
But isn’t it interesting in these posts how far off track people get. There talking about the Northwest Territtories and Labrador and Newfoundland, what a great world this is… eh?
Please feel free to email me
Dandmb50@aol.com
ICQ doesn’t stand for anything, it just sounds like “I Seek You” when spoken.
Not the only country in the world, but for a while, the only country present on the internet in a big way. It was really not long ago that 90% of the people on the internet were from the USA, so most people just assumed anyone they met online was a fellow yank.
Obviously that’s not true any more, but the US is still by far the largest country on the net - something like 8 times bigger than the next closest - so there are a lot of people who still make that assumption, fair or not.
As for how big our heads are: thankfully, big enough to invent the internet (ne arpanet) in the first place! 
You’re welcome. (Just trying to fit into the ugly american thing here
–
peas on earth