We might as well learn some geography

[Ekolter]

Yeehaw, My turn to talk about Oklahoma and no, it's NOT like the musical without the singing and dancing.

Oklahoma. Major Cities are Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

We have tornadoes, a lot of them. They're to us what earthquakes are to Californians. We're the heart of Tornado Alley. If you seen 'Twister' that's close to the real thing as you'll get. It was actually filmed in Oklahoma and had it's premiere there at Penn Square Mall in OKC. Yes, I remember that. It was the big news of the day.

There are flat rolling hills. A lot of small towns. Think Norman Rockwell paintings. People know their neighbors and still leave their doors unlocked. People tend to be deeply religious. The town I grew up in had a population of around 500. My graduating class consisted of 15 students - 11 boys and 4 girls. Most of my classmates still live there or around the OKC metro area.

Make up is Caucasian and Hispanics predominately in my experience.

Farming tends to be the big industry.

Football is life. Either you're an University of Oklahoma fan or a Oklahoma State University fan. Big rivalry. They actually used to shut down school for people to attend the big bragging rights game.

That about sums it up.

[MixedMyth]

Twister was also filmed in Iowa, which gets tornados as well...although not nearly as many.

I also hear fearsome stories of Oklahoma rattlesnakes.

[Killbert-Robby]

Bah, supermulticulturalism makes it hard to know where to start, but most people know I spent most of my time growing up in Malta, so that's what I'll do.

The Republic of Malta is an archipelago just south of Sicily. Nobody knows when the first settlers came, but it holds the most ancient buildings known to man, pre-stonehenge, so they came preeeeetty early. Malta served as an important stepping stone between Africa and Europe for millenia, right up to the Second World War. The result is the country has been occupied by more foreign powers than you can shake a stick at, each one leaving their mark, from the Phonecians to the Romans to the French to the British and many many more. It only gained its independence in the late 70s. This medley of cultures is most evident in the language, which lifts words straight from French and Aramaic and Italian and mashes them into one tongue.

The culture growing up there was pretty weird. Out of all the places I've lived, Malta was by far the safest. Violent crime was pretty much unheard of. Sure if you got into a fight at the bar you'd get your throat slit if you picked on the wrong guy (Or one of his friends, which can be really tricky in a country with a population of 400,000), but mugging and burglary and so forth were literally unheard of. The result was that things were pretty lawless, I have fond memories of walking down the main street sharing a sixpack of cheap beer with friends to cool off in the summer sun. The attitude was that nobody was going to do anything, you know, overtly harmful to others, so they might as well let people do what they want. However since I've moved away, public drinking laws have been put in place, and the drinking age has been raised (to 17).

There is literally nothing to do in the whole country. New enterprises like an ice rink or laser tag show up from time to time, but the locals are just so unfamiliar with the services that they are doomed to fail. Even Ben And Jerry's didn't last. As a result, a lot of time was spent just hanging around, whether you'd go to the bar or sit at the beach or your friend's pool, so on, so forth, hanging out was the most used pass time around.

The whole country feels like one big village, like I said there's only 400,000 people to the whole country, so you'd run into friends all over the place, and since everyone knew and was related to everybody else, people were pretty social and it was always easy to find common ground with new folks.

However Malta does have serious issues, like race. Malta is the first country who's rate of illegal immigrants coming in exceeds its birth rate. Most of these are Libyans, Egyptians, etc, and the country is pretty much exclusively white, so black/white tension can still be very real from person to person.

Fun fact, Malta is the only country to have more citizens living outside of its borders than within it.
And thats about it.

Now pictures :
http://i40.tinypic.com/29pf7dv.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/2qdby35.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/21brf5v.jpg

[Dr Legostar]

Twister was also filmed in Iowa, which gets tornados as well...although not nearly as many.

I also hear fearsome stories of Oklahoma rattlesnakes.

My best friend Sarah, you know Sarah MM, cleaned Helen Hunt's Hotel room (worked at the hotel where they were staying) when they were filming part of Twister near Ames.

[Toxic]

I live in California about 50 miles south of my native San Francisco.

[Aerones]

I live in Michigan, somewhere in the rural areas between Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek.
Grand Rapids is the second largest city in the state (after Detroit) and is actually still growing, whereas Detroit is, well, not. I am told that at the current rate of population change Grand Rapids will become the largest city in the state in just over two decades. However, Grand Rapids really isn't known for much. It's the home of Amway and that's pretty much it.
Kalamazoo's largest employer used to be Upjohn's, a pharmaceutical company. They were bought out by Pharmecia, who laid hundreds of employees off, and are now owned by Pfizer, who laid off hundreds more employees and closed down several R&D facilities. Now the largest employer in the city IS the city. Oh, and it was also the home of the world's very first mall, but that closed down years ago.
Battle Creek is the home of breakfast cereal. Kellogg's, Post and General Mills are all based in Battle Creek.

All three of these cities suffer from extensive Urban Decay. They each have fairly large colleges where they pool their tax money to keep the facilities and infrastructure up-to-date, but outside of these areas there is a lot of rundown neighborhoods.

This is the state which has been hit hardest by the recession. As a state the entire economy was pretty much fueled by the auto industry. A few decades ago entire factories started being shut down and relocated to other states. For years we adjusted, but the overall income of the state started to drop. Fewer people were able to afford the new vehicles being produced, and so more layoffs ensued. Then even fewer could buy the products so even more were laid off. The cycle continued for years until GM, Chrysler and Ford went bankrupt. Ford is struggling it's way out of the crisis and is earning a lot of goodwill among the people here, but GM and Chrysler took government bailout money, laid off even more workers, and have generally earned the ire of the entirety of the state.

But yeah, right now we have the highest unemployment rate in the nation due to the Auto-crisis and the domino effect it's had on other industries (this is why I finally had enough time to start my comic). People are losing their homes, feeling grumpy, and for some reason this has turned into a sort of xenophobia. There are numerous pop-up militant groups throughout the state. A good sized percentage of the population is openly hostile toward people of color (especially Middle Easterners), foreign entities (including the UN and other organizations) and the gays.

I have heard tourists refer to us as "Little Texas" or "North Texas." We used to be quite friendly, and celebrated dozens of festivals throughout the year (The Tulip Festival, Cherry Festival, etc...) which brought in a good amount of tourism. We also have some very nice beaches with zero risk of shark attack. But now we've pretty much locked ourselves in our state and scared away the neighbors.

....I may be a little bitter in my assessment.

Edit: Oh! Just a point of interest here - There are many many many Michiganders descended from Dutch immigrants. I, however, am primarily WASP but was partly raised by my Bohemian Grandmother who had been married to my Croatian Grandfather before his death in a mining accident. My last name is bastardized Croatian. I have been told it actually translates to "Oakenson."

[Ahaugen]

Alberta

It's basically Canada's Texas ... but with better scenery and fewer guns. Nickelback came from here. We are very sorry.

Calgary is the largest city and financial center of the province. Home to most the corporate headquarters for Canada's oil industry. Home to the Calgary Flames of the NHL and the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. The city also hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. Calgary is notable for covering the same surface area as New York City, yet only having 1/8th the population. The city is located at the edge of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, placing it within an hours drive of Banff National Park, which we'll get to later. The city is home to an expansive light rail system known as the "C-Train". It's one of the busiest and most cost effective right rail systems in North America, with an average weekday ridership of 230,000 and a cost of $24 million a mile per year to operate.

The capital is Edmonton. The city is home to the Edmonton Oilers of the NHL, with whom Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier won championships with in the late 80s, and the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL, the only professional gridiron football team to win five consecutive championships ever. Because of this, the city is referred to as "The City of Champions". Canada's largest outdoor stadium, the 60,000 seat Commonwealth Stadium, is located in the City. Edmonton is situated at the edge of the northern Boreal forests on a large river valley. This, combined with increasing drug and gang violence along with a large immigrant community have made it the perfect setting for a crime drama. Most the oil refined in Canada is processed along Refinery Row in the northeast of the city. The city was hit by one of Canada's worst tornadoes in 1987 when an F4/F5 tornado tore through the north east portion of the city. During its height, the groundbreaking sketch comedy show SCTV was shot in the city.

Fort McMurray is in the north of the province. That's where we rape the Earth for our oil sands money. Don't go to Fort McMurray. Seriously. The prices are all inflated and there's no place to stay.

Red Deer is in the middle of the Calgary-Edmonton Corridor. Lots of oilfield service companies and utility trailer dealers there ... that's about it.

Medicine Hat has a shit ton of natural gas. At one point, it was cheaper for the city to keep the gas street lights burning all the time rather than hire people to extinguish and light them. Once was home to Canada's Crockery Industry. The British Army does it's tank corps training at a Canadian Forces base to the northwest of the city. Between them and the oil and gas workers ... expect fights at the bars ... lots and lots of fights.

Lethbridge has the largest steel girder railroad trestle in the world. Feedlot Alley is north of the city, so a wind from the north is a pain in the ass. When I was growing up in Montana, this was the closest Walmart and McDonalds.

Banff National Park is a microcosm for development in the wilderness. The rich want the Banff townsite to be Aspen North, the environmentalists want everyone out, and the rest of us just want to camp without a $400,000 motor home running generator exhaust into our tents. Besides that, the views are freaking spectacular.

Jasper National Park is a bit better, further from Edmonton so not as developed. Home to the spectacular Columbia Ice Fields (guess which river starts there).

Waterton National Park is less known, so much less crowded. You can afford stuff in the townsite, park at the trailheads, and no golfers get mauled by bears. Recognized, along with Montana's Glacier National Park, by the United Nations as an International Peace Park. Best part of it is I can go there on a day trip.

[Toxic]

This is the state which has been hit hardest by the recession. As a state the entire economy was pretty much fueled by the auto industry. A few decades ago entire factories started being shut down and relocated to other states. For years we adjusted, but the overall income of the state started to drop. Fewer people were able to afford the new vehicles being produced, and so more layoffs ensued. Then even fewer could buy the products so even more were laid off. The cycle continued for years until GM, Chrysler and Ford went bankrupt. Ford is struggling it's way out of the crisis and is earning a lot of goodwill among the people here, but GM and Chrysler took government bailout money, laid off even more workers, and have generally earned the ire of the entirety of the state.[/i]

Not to be a nitpick or anything but Ford has never gone bankrupt. Chrysler and GM both did last year, but Ford has been hanging in there somewhat.

[Aerones]

This is the state which has been hit hardest by the recession. As a state the entire economy was pretty much fueled by the auto industry. A few decades ago entire factories started being shut down and relocated to other states. For years we adjusted, but the overall income of the state started to drop. Fewer people were able to afford the new vehicles being produced, and so more layoffs ensued. Then even fewer could buy the products so even more were laid off. The cycle continued for years until GM, Chrysler and Ford went bankrupt. Ford is struggling it's way out of the crisis and is earning a lot of goodwill among the people here, but GM and Chrysler took government bailout money, laid off even more workers, and have generally earned the ire of the entirety of the state.[/i]

Not to be a nitpick or anything but Ford has never gone bankrupt. Chrysler and GM both did last year, but Ford has been hanging in there somewhat.

You know, I can't really recall offhand, but you may be right. Regardless of whether or not they actually filed for it, they've been hit hard just like the other two, though.
The fact that they turned down the bailout money, and then put some of their employees back to work, even at the risk of losing more money, has created a lot of goodwill for the company. People still can't really afford to buy their new cars yet, but I've heard a lot of people say that when they can they'll go with a new Ford.

[Ahaugen]

I owned a Ford once ... old F150 ... nice truck

[Aerones]

I dated a Ford once, but he wasn't related to any of the famous ones. At least not closely.

[McDuffies]

Nah, you've heard of Seattle, right? Least known state here and abroad has to be Delaware.

There's that confusion, I thought that "Washington" in there reffered to D.C.

Edit: Oh! Just a point of interest here - There are many many many Michiganders descended from Dutch immigrants. I, however, am primarily WASP but was partly raised by my Bohemian Grandmother who had been married to my Croatian Grandfather before his death in a mining accident. My last name is bastardized Croatian. I have been told it actually translates to "Oakenson."

So, Hrastovski? Sounds like Slavonian surname (north-eastern part).

[MixedMyth]

Nah, you've heard of Seattle, right? Least known state here and abroad has to be Delaware.

There's that confusion, I thought that "Washington" in there reffered to D.C.

Heh! I should have addressed that. Yeah, we have two washingtons. There's the state of Washington, which is on the west coast. It has Seattle, lots of rain, and lots of forests. And volcanoes. It's very pretty, if you don't mind the rain, and has a very moderate climate. Mount Saint Helens is here, if you ever heard about the big eruption during the 80s.

And then there's Washington D.C., which is on the eastern sea board. Because it is the seat of the Federal government, D.C. isn't part of any state, nor is it a state itself. D.C. stands for District of Columbia...so it's a district. Originally it wasn't meant to be a city. It was just supposed to be where senators and congresscritters met...and the president lived. But there's a city there now, which can be somewhat problematic when it comes to determining how you count the votes of citizens who live there. Currently, the citizens of D.C do have representation in the presidential election, but not in the Senate. And although they have a deligate in the house of representatives, the deligate has no voting rights.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

A little more about Texas:

-Austin is considered the live music capitol of the world, though in my opinion, I'd rather go to a live show in Denton than Austin.
-Dallas is a bad ass city, but an awful TV show.
-We have the coolest gals in the states, but they're also the craziest.
-We have probably the worst stereotypes about us, but they aren't all true and they don't all pertain to all of us. The sad part is, a lot of the are true, though, and they pertain to most of the people in my home town. -_-
-Texas is the only state to have every type of regional zone (or what ever it's called) in it. I.E. We have a dessert, forests, mountains, beaches, plains, hill country, etc.
-East Texas scares me.
-West Texas is empty.
-The Pan Handle is too cold for me.
-South Texas is fun, but Houston scares me.
-North Texas is awesome.
-No, we don't all have six shooters, and we don't ride horses as our primary transportation.
-Cowboy smoke pot.

Though I'd have to disagree with Brockway in the part about being stuck in Texas. I love the country side here so much, I wouldn't mind living the rest of my life out here. Minus the shitty internet connection and cell phone signal, I think Texas has some of the most beautiful landscapes (except for East Texas) in America. That being said though, I just wish the old crazy people that live here, you know the ones that give us a bad name for being closed minded idiots, would hurry up and die off, I'm tired of catching their wrap.

[[AlmightyPyro]]

Football is life. Either you're an University of Oklahoma fan or a Oklahoma State University fan. Big rivalry. They actually used to shut down school for people to attend the big bragging rights game.

Ekolter, I didn't realize you were an Okie. That's cool. That being said, OU and OSU can kiss Texas Techs ass! LOL, sorry I just read this and had to comment. Texas and Oklahoma are like angry cousins. We bitch and fight all the time, and only stand up for each other when some yank is talking bad about us. xD At least where I'm from, every one is separated between, Tech, A&M, UT, OU, or OSU. I go to UT Dallas, but cheer for Tech. I hate Aggies but not as much as I do OU or OSU, and people from UT are just stuck up. To be fair though, every one at Tech has got the Raider Rash (a venereal disease named after the college ) and are drunkards.

[Mvmarcz]

I noticed MM mentioned most of the south and even New Orleans without even mentioning Louisiana...

Most of the Deep South stuff applies to Louisiana. We touch Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and the Gulf. Instead of the County we have the Parish, we are the only state like that. Our capital is Baton Rouge, we are the home of New Orleans, as MM said of the region Mardi Gras is kinda our "thing". We have a love affair with the pirate Jean Lafitte, my town even has a 2 week festival dedicated to him and rumors of his burying treasure in the area. We also have some kickass wetlands and got blamed for West Nile....oh yeah and even though people only remember ONE hurricane we get hit with them pretty regularly...

[Rkolter]

Well, let's see.

I've lived in a few states, for a few years each. I don't see anyone has talked about Minnesota or Missouri though. Vort could tell you all about Minnesota. So I'll do Missouri.

I've lived here ten years. Missouri is one of the states that has the Mississippi river as a border - we're on the west side of it. We're smack dab in the middle of the country. Or very close to it at any rate.

Missouri has a population of about 6 million, is the 18th most populated state, and was the 24th state inducted into the union. Our biggest cities are St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield. Our capital is Jefferson City. Jefferson City is "too big for small town charm" but "too small for big city advantages".

Missouri is a very religious state, with 60% of the population claiming to be Protestant. Despite this, I've found the state to be surprisingly laid back - avoiding some of the "bible thumping" that goes on in other states.

We've got plains to the north, rolling hills and streams in the middle, and the start of the Ozark mountain range in the south.

Our biggest industries? Beyond agriculture of course, we have big aerospace, tobacco, transportation, and (no surprise really) beer production. Anheiser-Bush is based out of St. Louis. Sorry... Anheiser-INBEV. God I hate them.

We're a political belweather state too - excepting two, we've correctly picked the president in every election since 1904.

We're also known as the "Show-Me State" - mostly due to a longstanding distruct of regulation. We have the weakest enforced tobacco and alcohol laws in the country. But it goes beyond that - for example, the property tax in Missouri is only on cars - because people shot at the appraisers who would come by, and in the end the only property they could verify safely was by peeking through a garage window. Or, so the story goes. In any case - another example is our "pay for no ticket" policy - for an additional $80 you can pay the fine on any traffic ticket, and have it expunged from your record. I've gotten three moving violation tickets since moving to Missouri - my record indicates I've never gotten one.

It's a pretty cool state. I like it here.

[McDuffies]

So which states are all redneck jokes about?

-No, we don't all have six shooters, and we don't ride horses as our primary transportation.

But do you still wear cowboy hats?

I don't see anyone has talked about Minnesota or Missouri though. Vort could tell you all about Minnesota.

Oh that's where Penny is from! Vort isn't visiting these days.

[Dr Legostar]

So which states are all redneck jokes about?

ALL of them.

[MixedMyth]

Good question. They're often directed more towards the southern states, but really all states have...well...a redneck street. And sometimes its a source of pride. It's usually in traditionally rural areas. It's really more of a rural community vs urbanite thing. That's also where you find the most linguistic differences, as far as accents go.

It is weird. The redneck thing is either a derogatory term or a term of pride, depending on who you ask and where they come from. Kind of like how Illinois people call people from Indiana 'Hoosiers' as an insult, wheras people from indiana call themselves Hoosiers as source of pride.