What states do you consider to be part of the Midwest?

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.

As a native Missourian (lived in St. Louis the first 18 years of my life), I can definitely say Missouri is the midwest.

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".

Here is how this shit breaks down in my mind:

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5561/unitedstatesmapq.gif

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:
ohio
indiana
michigan
illinois
wisconsin
missouri
iowa
minnesota
kansas
nebraska
south dakota
sort 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.

made yall a map

http://i35.tinypic.com/2wcg0tc.gif

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.

its just like get an identity is all

these maps are hilar but new york is not new england!!

new york fits well enough in new england - its delaware and maryland where the problem is

European over here so take with pinch of salt but in my mind I'd always had it down as something like

Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Michigan
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Iowa
The Dakotas
Nebraska
Kansas
Missouri

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

uh that was a mistake there about "western" rustbelt - I meant the Cleveland/Pittsburgh/Youngstown(?) kind of area (So i guess western PA)

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?

a lot of upstate new york accents are like that -- big polish/german influence.

western pennsylvania is not the midwest

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!

chicago accent is similar to new yorker accent but with an "oh hey dere" nordic upper midwest influence.

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.

Oh sorry, JB, I missed a "not" there while skimming thread. We are in agreement.

i wish my mom would send me casserole recipes

i mean isn't that what moms DO?

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.

holy shit some of u are retardo

NB: in parts of the Midwest, casseroles are referred to as "hot dish"

Welcome to ILX, is this your first time here?

xpost

casseroles are some dope shit imo

Kentucky is the South, by the way.

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

MY MIDWEST:
Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan

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 grew up on the east coast so the western plains states feel like foreign countries to me still.

casseroles: terrible, awful, gay, midwestern, food
ND & SD: midwest

afaik the dakotas are totally mountain free (except for the black hills?)

but i always forget that the dakotas are not as far west as i think they are.

I've never been to a Dakota, gbx. I think of them as having mountains

hoo boy xpost

i've only been to michigan once, and all the cool parts are at least as far as colorado!

nodak: no mountains
sodak: black hills along the western edge, otherwise just farmin' that looks exactly like southern minnesota and parts of iowa

holy shit some of u are retardo

― how rad bandit (gbx), Thursday, October 22, 2009 3:39 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM

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.

Interestingly, I think I agree most with the two other people on this thread who are native Illinoisans:

ohio
indiana
michigan
wisconsin
illinois
minnesota
iowa
missouri

― 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.)

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

(xpost: That is, the two other native Illinoisans before Granny Dainger posted.)

Missouri is 100% midwest, no contest

the rust belt isn't all in the midwest. western NY is in the rust belt, too.

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"??

many xposts

jaymc otm + would also accept the dakotas east of the missouri r. + missouri north of the missouri r.

south dakota is just like nebraska but about four hundred degrees colder in the winter

also, btw, you know that trope about the midwestern/alaskan "connection"? like, that got thrown around a bit during the elections w/r/t palin's accent and support, etc.?

they were not talking about illinois, indiana, ohio, or pennsylvania.

MIDWEST =

"rust belt"
IN, MI, OH, PA

"north central"
IL, IA, MN, WI

"prairie"
KS, NE, ND, SD

this sounds about right, with the "rust belt" provisos posted above.

mookie otm!