I guess I think The Midwest as that aggregate of states which are (A) east of the Mississippi (Minnesota excepted); (B) north of the Mason-Dixon; (C) composed of a diversity of geological features: lakes, forests, plains, hills, wetlands etc.; & (D) straddled economically b/w industry & agriculture.
― you just freaked out more than our director of lols (Pillbox), Thursday, 22 October 2009 02:32 (fourteen years ago) link
yea seriously xp - there are a few states that are no-bullshit midwestern states. imo these are: wisconsin, minnesota, illinois, iowa, indiana (have any deniers ever been to bloomington ffs?), ohio, and michigan. i'd even throw in missouri into that
― mark cl, Thursday, 22 October 2009 02:33 (fourteen years ago) link
not saying that is the correct definition, mind - just the way I've always personally sorted them.
― you just freaked out more than our director of lols (Pillbox), Thursday, 22 October 2009 02:34 (fourteen years ago) link
As an Oregonian, I have given the matter very little thought. To a native of the west coast, large tracts of the country are simply "back east".
I would obviously exclude all the eastern seaboard states, new england, the old south and the border south states like kentucky and tennessee. The west proper starts with any state containing the continental divide.
Missouri is an odd duck that is very hard to place. Pennsylvania is equally an odd duck, but is too far east for me to feel comfortable tagging it midewestern. Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin try to set themselves apart as the old Northwest, but I'm not fooled a bit. They are middle west by affinity as well as by geography.
OTH, Oklahoma doesn't fit at all with the likes of Iowa, Kansas or Nebraska, so it absolutely cannot be midwestern for that reason alone.
― Aimless, Thursday, 22 October 2009 03:06 (fourteen years ago) link
you guys, regions aren't mutually exclusive, and regional boundaries can overlap state boundaries ok. life is too short for your rigid geographical constructs, free ur minds~
― iiiijjjj, Thursday, 22 October 2009 03:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah... maybe... but answer the question, yuh big galoot. We'll all judge just how free ur mind really is when we see what it produces.
― Aimless, Thursday, 22 October 2009 03:18 (fourteen years ago) link
As a native Missourian (lived in St. Louis the first 18 years of my life), I can definitely say Missouri is the midwest.
― jonathan - stl, Thursday, 22 October 2009 03:22 (fourteen years ago) link
This is blowing my mind. To me, Iowa was always the very definition of Midwest.
Yes. It is the belly of the Midwest. Even other Midwestern states look at it and go "whoa y'all are some bland fat corn eating motherfuckers".
― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 22 October 2009 04:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Here is how this shit breaks down in my mind:
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5561/unitedstatesmapq.gif
― existential eggs (Abbott), Thursday, 22 October 2009 05:40 (fourteen years ago) link
native missourians SWEAR that missouri is not part of the midwest
are these bootheelers or something? i mean, basically everyone in my family is a native missourian, and they'd think this assertion was pretty weird.
imo:ohioindianamichiganillinoiswisconsinmissouriiowaminnesotakansasnebraskasouth dakotasort of unsure about north dakota, but i guess i'd include it too
midwestern also works as a regional designation like appalachian rather than a group of states. sort of like the more or less flatlands west of the appalachians that were settled by people moving west from new england/hudson valley via the erie canal corridor and by people from the mid atlantic going through pennsylvania.
― circles, Thursday, 22 October 2009 05:46 (fourteen years ago) link
made yall a map
http://i35.tinypic.com/2wcg0tc.gif
― ice cr?m, Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Growing up in Kentucky it was quite apparent that it had an identity crisis about whether or not it was Southern or Midwestern. My Alabama cousins always called me a Yankee for coming from Kentucky, but the difference culturally between KY and Ohio seemed pretty apparent too. We got our own thang.
Oh, and MD is not whatever so fuck you. Baltimore pwns.
― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:24 (fourteen years ago) link
its just like get an identity is all
― ice cr?m, Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:26 (fourteen years ago) link
these maps are hilar but new york is not new england!!
― get killed walkin your DOGGIE (get bent), Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:34 (fourteen years ago) link
new york fits well enough in new england - its delaware and maryland where the problem is
― ice cr?m, Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:41 (fourteen years ago) link
European over here so take with pinch of salt but in my mind I'd always had it down as something like
OhioIndianaIllinoisMichiganWisconsinMinnesotaIowaThe DakotasNebraskaKansasMissouri
and the great plains and great lakes regions as somehow 2 constituent parts of the midwest (and western rustbelt as maybe a 3rd subpart of it). But somehow I think of the western parts of the dakotas and kansas and I guess Nebraska as sorta different again but can't articulate why. Western Pennsylvania I can't decide about
― äüßerst delikate angelegenheit, Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:52 (fourteen years ago) link
uh that was a mistake there about "western" rustbelt - I meant the Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Youngstown(?) kind of area (So i guess western PA)
― äüßerst delikate angelegenheit, Thursday, 22 October 2009 06:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Separating Pittsburgh and Buffalo from Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee seems wrong somehow. Ever notice that the Buffalo accent is almost the exact same as a Chicago one?
― Bill Magill, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:06 (fourteen years ago) link
a lot of upstate new york accents are like that -- big polish/german influence.
― get killed walkin your DOGGIE (get bent), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:12 (fourteen years ago) link
western pennsylvania is not the midwest
― mookieproof, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:15 (fourteen years ago) link
ohio and indiana are wild cards -- they're not not midwestern but i tend to lump them in with the rust belt northeast.
JBR, I don't understand this???? How are they NOT Midwestern? If rustbelt-ness takes precedence over Midwesterness, then half of Michigan is gone that way too!
― I would feel confident if I dated her because I am older than (Laurel), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:17 (fourteen years ago) link
chicago accent is similar to new yorker accent but with an "oh hey dere" nordic upper midwest influence.
― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:18 (fourteen years ago) link
when I moved to Wisconsin my mom the native Minnesotan was so delighted about my decision to relocate to the midwest that she got me a subscription to Midwest Living magazine. and, every month, packed in there with the hottest new casserole recipes and discounts on the trendiest bed and breakfasts is a DEFINITIVE LIST of the states the magazine covers. they are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
― iiiijjjj, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:20 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh sorry, JB, I missed a "not" there while skimming thread. We are in agreement.
― I would feel confident if I dated her because I am older than (Laurel), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:21 (fourteen years ago) link
i wish my mom would send me casserole recipes
― get killed walkin your DOGGIE (get bent), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:32 (fourteen years ago) link
i mean isn't that what moms DO?
― get killed walkin your DOGGIE (get bent), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:33 (fourteen years ago) link
The only good one is the pork chops cooked in the dish with the rice, so all the pork fat soaks into the rice and makes it tasty. Cream of chicken with celery and peas and with French onions on top: ew. Camper stew aka goulash: ew because frozen green beans? should not be there. I can't think of any others.
― I would feel confident if I dated her because I am older than (Laurel), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:35 (fourteen years ago) link
holy shit some of u are retardo
― how rad bandit (gbx), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:39 (fourteen years ago) link
NB: in parts of the Midwest, casseroles are referred to as "hot dish"
― dr. johnson (askance johnson), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
Welcome to ILX, is this your first time here?
xpost
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
casseroles are some dope shit imo
― mark cl, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
Kentucky is the South, by the way.
― I would feel confident if I dated her because I am older than (Laurel), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
like how on earth could you exclude the dakotas from the "midwest"?? SoDak, in particular, is, like Iowa, a prototypically midwestern state to me.
seems like the european guy is most otm:
and the great plains and great lakes regions as somehow 2 constituent parts of the midwest (and western rustbelt as maybe a 3rd subpart of it). But somehow I think of the western parts of the dakotas and kansas and I guess Nebraska as sorta different again but can't articulate why. Western Pennsylvania I can't decide about― äüßerst delikate angelegenheit, Thursday, October 22, 2009 1:52 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― äüßerst delikate angelegenheit, Thursday, October 22, 2009 1:52 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― how rad bandit (gbx), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:40 (fourteen years ago) link
MY MIDWEST:Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:42 (fourteen years ago) link
I've never been to a Dakota, gbx. I think of them as having mountains, but then I guess they're pretty big so probably the eastern side is hardly in the same state as the western side.
― I would feel confident if I dated her because I am older than (Laurel), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:42 (fourteen years ago) link
i grew up on the east coast so the western plains states feel like foreign countries to me still.
― get killed walkin your DOGGIE (get bent), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:44 (fourteen years ago) link
casseroles: terrible, awful, gay, midwestern, foodND & SD: midwest
― harbl, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:44 (fourteen years ago) link
afaik the dakotas are totally mountain free (except for the black hills?)
― dr. johnson (askance johnson), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:45 (fourteen years ago) link
but i always forget that the dakotas are not as far west as i think they are.
― get killed walkin your DOGGIE (get bent), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:45 (fourteen years ago) link
I've never been to a Dakota, gbx. I think of them as having mountains
hoo boy xpost
― Don Quishote (jjjusten), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:45 (fourteen years ago) link
i've only been to michigan once, and all the cool parts are at least as far as colorado!
nodak: no mountainssodak: black hills along the western edge, otherwise just farmin' that looks exactly like southern minnesota and parts of iowa
― how rad bandit (gbx), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:46 (fourteen years ago) link
― how rad bandit (gbx), Thursday, October 22, 2009 3:39 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
OTM
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah the western half of S Dakota (which I'd describe as hilly rather than mountainous, though you do get up to, what, near 7000ft elevation?) seems too frontiersy to be part of the Midwest. A place like Deadwood is the antithesis of Midwesternness, even back then.
― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Interestingly, I think I agree most with the two other people on this thread who are native Illinoisans:
ohioindianamichiganwisconsinillinoisminnesotaiowamissouri
― access flap (omar little), Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
(I'm not sure I'd include Missouri myself, but it's the first state I add if I expanded my list.)
the only midwest states are the states with big ten schools. shit, except for pennsylvania.
― t0dd swiss, Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
(Had this exact same thought.)
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:47 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/04/electoral-history-charts.html
MIDWEST =
"rust belt"IN, MI, OH, PA
"north central"IL, IA, MN, WI
"prairie"KS, NE, ND, SD
yeah PA doesn't really fit in the midwest, but it's def rust belt and the rest of the rust belt is midwest so
― cialis morissette (goole), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:48 (fourteen years ago) link
(xpost: That is, the two other native Illinoisans before Granny Dainger posted.)
― M. Grissom/DeShields (jaymc), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Missouri is 100% midwest, no contest
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:48 (fourteen years ago) link
the rust belt isn't all in the midwest. western NY is in the rust belt, too.
― harbl, Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:49 (fourteen years ago) link
ok srsly laurel no offense but thinking that the dakotas have mountains is totally blowing my mind! i mean, i've driven all the way across sodak maybe a dozen times (at least), and it is, in my brain, basically shorthand for "the flat expanse of the middle western states"
but i guess some of you just think "plains states"??
― how rad bandit (gbx), Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:49 (fourteen years ago) link
many xposts