Info on American States?

[wingsandsword]

What's this? Kentucky Fried Chicken isn't from Kentucky?

Let me speak up here as a Kentuckian, born & raised.

Kentucky Fried Chicken was first created in 1939 in the small town of Corbin, Kentucky by Col. Harlan Sanders. The first resturant is still open and used as a museum as well. The first franchise opened in 1952.

In 1964 he sold the resturant chain to a group of investors, including John Y. Brown (a future Governor of Kentucky), although he remained affiliated with the company and their spokesman for most of his life. At one point is was sold to a company which decided to cut corners and change recipes to cut costs. Col. Sanders was outraged, and was very outspoken in the media that the "gravy tastes like wallpaper paste" when they were done. The new company sued for slander, but suing Kentucky's favorite son in a Kentucky court for complaining about the drop in quality of his product didn't get very far and he won the case.

In 1991 they changed their name from "Kentucky Fried Chicken" to "KFC" because the term "Fried" was considered unhealthy. There are bogus rumors that the state government wanted to charge a fee for the use of the name "Kentucky" (I'm about 99% sure they legally can't do that) or that they were using genetically modified fowl that couldn't legally be called "chicken", but they were both easily debunked urban legends. It was all about worrying about an image problem for selling "fried" food. They tried that "Kitchen Fresh Chicken" idea for a short while in 2001, but there were a lot of objections from Kentuckians about their namesake resturant turning their back on them.

In April of this year, they started slowly going back to their original name, by opening new resturants called "Kentucky Fried Chicken", starting in Louisville, Kentucky.

In Kentucky though, I've noticed we don't have as many Kentucky Fried Chicken as I see in other states when travelling. Fried chicken, mashed potatos and gravy, green beans, and biscuits are certainly a very popular meal, but are typically homemade or from a local non-chain resturant.

As for what Kentucky is like, it's mostly rural, lots of beautiful rolling hills (becoming low mountains in the east and southeast) and lots of forests. Heavily dotted with farms (tobacco until recently), and horse farms in the central part of the state (horse country is quite beautiful, with lots of old handmade stone fences). Plenty of small towns, but only two cities of note, Lexington and Louisville, which have a big rivalry in college basketball (University of Kentucky vs. University of Louisville). The state has an unfortunate reputation of being ill-educated and uncivilized, and the more rural parts of the state can regrettably sometimes live up to the stereotype, but it's much different in the cities. The state takes great pride in its horse breeding/racing industry, and the production of bourbon whiskey. There is little in the way of professional sports, but University of Kentucky Basketball is the sport most commonly followed statewide (except near Louisville). Much of the state is religously and socially conservative, and evangelical Christianity (especially Southern Baptist) is the most common religion, but in the cities you can find everything (including Wiccan, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist).

As for regions of the country, the culture really does vary a whole lot based on where you go. I guess we probably do look a little monolithic to an outsider, but on the inside there is a world of difference between a stereotypical New Yorker, Texan, Californian and a Kentuckian. We have one common language, but pronounciations and vocabulary widely vary. The Boston accent is often impenetrable to my ears, and the signature Texas twang sometimes grates on my ears, and while I try to keep my accent under control, I know sometimes I slip into a "southern" accent.

Also, within the U.S., "Yankee" does not mean somebody from the U.S., it mean somebody from the northeastern US. Exactly what denotes a "Yankee" varies, but I generally consider it to be the state of Ohio and further north or east. Many people from the southeastern U.S. (typically parts of the U.S. that formed the Confederacy during the Civil War) consider "Yankee" to be a perjorative and calling one that could easily be taken as a significant insult.

 

[Lhorgrim]

WayneLigon, thanks for the Snopes reference. I knew I had heard that the name thing was a rumor. I did a search on Snopes before you posted, but I didn't find the TROLL entry.

Good overview of our state wingsandsword.

 

[Planesdragon]

In defense of New England/Upstate NY:

• Harvard and Yale, the two most prestiguous colleges in the United States, are both in New England--CT, if I recall correctly. To say nothing of the plethora of excellent colleges scattered throught the rest of the area.
• Upstate NY is not only the home of Uncle Sam, birthplace of GM, and home to the most haunted cemetry in the country AND the Five Tribes of the Oneidas (sic - may have name wrong), but it's also the place where the Mormon religion was founed.
• Massachusests, in addition to being home of MIT and Boston, is also the only state in the Union to allow homosexual marriage.
• Vermont, just north of MA and one of the few NE states not to be one of the original 13 colonies, is an "exceptionally blue blue-state" noteworthy for not only being the home of the (in)famous Howard Dean, but also the VERY first state in the union to allow the marriage-equivalent Civil Unions for homosexuals.
• Maine, in addition to being the northernmost of the lower 48, is also the eastern-most. As such, it's where transatlantic flights that must be diverted from the DC area are sent. Most likely because their mazelike highway system keeps anyone from getting out of Maine.
• More about NY: It's also the home of the first canal that allowed water travel between the east coast and the plains, the Eire Canal. There's a LOT of history up here--oh, and let's not forget Niagara Falls, which sit right in Niagara Falls, NY. (Although the best view is from across the river in Canada.)
• (And on a more interesting note, Eden Studios has its headquarters and comapny-owned game store, Zombie Planet, right here in Albany NY. Where they have a soft competition with the more general used book-and-game store Flights of Fantasy.)

 

[yennico]

Perhaps you need one book for each state.

 

[Malic]

Thanks guys, this is great!

(Taken with a pinch of salt as recommended ...)

Iowa most beer per capita, huh? As an Aussie I can respect that.

Wow, Coca-Cola's from Georgia? That's hard to process, such a massive global icon/presence being from a particular place. How about McDonalds, is that 'from' anywhere?

Love to hear any more comments people have got.

Can anyone educate us about Nebraska?

Cheers all!

 

[megamania]

Vermont- the good, the bad and the damned ugly-

Good
Beautiful scenic state
5 seasons clearly detectable (Winter, Mud, Spring, Summer and Fall)
Maple syrup
Green Mountain Boys. If not for the Vermont Rednecks- We may still be an expansion of Britian

Bad
Howard Dean
Near impossible cost of living conditions (tourist state)
Too many tourist based jobs
City people move here for the peace and nature then drag their city life ethics with them. Afterwards they complain about how the people of Vermont are screwing the state up.
little cell phone reception

Ugly
Once a lot of dairy and farming. Now the land is being sold to Tri-state people (NY, CONN, NJ) for crazy prices. The effect- higher cost of living, low wages, conflicts between natives and flatlanders
in-breeding sometimes I think the entire state is related to itself

 

[Rystil Arden]

Massachussettes - Boston is where a bunch of people who started the Revolutionary War came from. MIT is a big school that teaches technology and computers.

Excellent. Name MIT before that silly...little red school down the road. Well done! Next step is spelling Massachusetts correctly, but hey, that's what editors are for, right?

~Rystil the MITer

 

[The_Universe]

Dude, how big do you think New England is? New England is the states north of New York. New England is not "places that are not Texas".

Sheesh. Silly Texans.

Anyway. Maryland is where they grow milk. Apparently from cows. I'm not familiar with the exact procedure.

Anyway. Maryland is where they grow milk. Apparently from cows. I'm not familiar with the exact procedure.

Actually, Maryland does have some Dairy Production, but it's a tiny fraction of what's produced in the Midwest. Wisconsin alone outproduces Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware.

 

[Stormborn]

Sweet Home...

Ranger Wickett said:

Alabama - Rural, full of racists, but birthplace of the Civil Rights movement.


Mostly yes to the first one. There are 3 basic areas: North, Central, and Lower (LA as we call it.) The Birmingham/Hoover metropolitan area is the biggest city and dominates the center of the state, but only about a 45 min. drive from Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama. Built in,on, and around Red Mountain its a steel town that recovered from the 70s. We have the 2nd largest free standing metal statue, next to the Statue of Liberty, in the world. Its from a World Fair at the turn of the last century, Vulcan God of the Forge. In fact, Birmingham has a great deal of strange mystical totems, like a suburb named for Vesta, because a former mayor had a replica Temple of Vesta built on his property. Birmigham is a strange place geographically, becuase of the mountains, its very broken up into lots of smaller neighboorhoods. Birmingham also has the richest zip-code in the US, in Mountain Brook (recently in the news as the home of Natalee Holloway who is missing in Aruba) and what was at one time the poorest, near Birmingham Green.

In North Alabama, Huntsville is worth noting, as was mentioned by a previous poster. Its where they took Van Braun after WW2 to jump start the US space program. Huntsville could be another state any where in America if you only moved in Arsenal/Space realated circles, otherwise its very North Alabama. NA is very hilly, being well into the Smokey Mountains, with several notable waterways and lakes.

In LA, there is Montgomery, Mobile (built on the only real bay in the Gulf of Mexico), and other places. Mostly flat, 99% rural, one has one of the poorest counties in the nation. It to is like another state compared to the Birmingham area.


If he has said "full of rednecks" I would have agreed with him on his next point. A "redneck" is a slang term originally applicable to rural agrarian people who would work out in the sun and burn their neck. Now it basically means any poor, and largely uneducated, person who possesses a kind of hubris about that state, a kind of mean and unfounded pride in being poor and uneducated. Like most stereotypes its easier to point out than define. Typically these people are also racists, but not neccesarilly. But then not all poor and largely uneducated people are rednecks either.

Racism in Alabama is highlighted in the American mind becuase of his next point. It is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. Something you can learn more about here: www.bcri.org. On the one hand a point of pride, that our citizens would have the will and determination to stand up against injustice and act. On the other a point of shame, that the actions of other citizens would make the first part neccesary.

Other than that Alabama is known for college football (American style of course) and the achievments of Bear Bryant among others. If you have seen Forrest Gump, he was Forrest's college coach in the whole "run forrest run" segment.

It is HOT and HUMID, summer lasts from about the 1st of May until the end of Septemeber, if we are lucky. We are frequently the target of Hurricanes, and they tend to only loose enough power to be Tropical Depressions by the time they make it to Birimingham. It almost never snows. And when the weather man says "chance of flurries" there is a run on milk and bread in the stores, for some strange reason. One time it really did snow, the Blizzard of 93 dropped about a foot of snow in Birmigham, shut the city down for a bout a week. We just don't deal with that often enough to have the resources on hand to adress it.

Hmmm... lots more tha could be said, but Iwil be glad to answer any more questions.

Interstingly enough, I have lived in Europe, travelled fairly exstinisivelly, and would still come back to central Alabama to live.

Oh, one more thing about regions in the US: "Delaware ain't the South!" North Carolina is only vaguely the South. When someone around here says "South" they mean "Deep South." If you refer to it as a "Pea-Con" Pie you are from the south, if you say "Pe-cAn" you might be a Yankee trying to pass.

Florida isn't "the South" either. It just happens to live down here.

 

[Desdichado]

RangerWickett, thanks for the great outline something to keep me going until those books get here in two months or so.

Uh, yeah. I think RangerWickett could use those books himself -- I'd disagree with most of his assessments completely.