Thursday, February 13, 2014

The State Of Things

Google has collected the most common beliefs or stereotypes about the fifty states, based on the most queries for "Why is [state] so...?"  The results, like many of the queries, are sort of boring.
 

My home state Michigan is cold.  Cold?  A bunch of other states are cold on the map--most of them colder than Michigan.  I guess that's better than California, which is expensive--along with New York and New Hampshire.  Not too many states have intriguing stereotypes, like haunted (though why Pennsylvania?) or important or smart.  Even racist (Louisiana, Tennessee) or backwards (Georgia) are more exciting.

Here's a stereotype map that's more fun:

 
Michigan gets "Serial killers"--now we're talking.  I don't get it--doesn't seem our specialty--but I'll take it over cold, which in this map is forced on liberal Wisconsin.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

As far as I can tell, the only state with the same stereotype in both maps is "corrupt" Illinois.

12:34 AM, February 13, 2014  
Blogger ColumbusGuy said...

Ohio recognized for dance? Who would have thought it? Important, sure. We have this map where Ohio is all big and stuff-our three C's are really something-and you can hardly see California and New York. (Of course to print it on a flat surface you have to use the famous "Ohio Projection.")

2:38 AM, February 13, 2014  
Anonymous Denver Guy said...

Colorado is about the only positive stereotype - "fit." Yay us. Unless you consider liberal or conservative positive stereotypes.

Of course on the second map, Cocaine should be changed to Pot - is the second map from the mid-80s?

8:20 AM, February 13, 2014  
Blogger Matthew Coniam said...

Apologies for this off-topic comment (feel free to delete after reading) but I wanted to get in touch with LAGuy to say that I am currently preparing a print edition of my annotated Marx guides and looking to acknowledge everybody who has contributed helpful suggestions and information. My question is, do you want to be acknowledged as LAGuy or under your real name? (Assuming that isn't your real name...) Could you get in touch at matthewconiam@aol.com to let me know? Thanks!

8:23 AM, February 13, 2014  
Blogger LAGuy said...

If the maps are too small to read, click on them to get a bigger version.

10:26 AM, February 13, 2014  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK I'll bite- Groucho or Karl?

8:04 AM, February 14, 2014  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought Ohio was being credited for its abundance of key parties and wife-swapping and other cool Swinger things.

Is it the only thing that could be fun there?

8:06 AM, February 14, 2014  
Blogger LAGuy said...

By all means, check out Matthew's excellent blog on the Marx Brothers:

http://marxcouncil.blogspot.com/

9:20 AM, February 14, 2014  

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