How do you think your state is perceived by out of staters?

I’m from Maryland, which I think doesn’t have any particular reputation. But… I currently live in West Virginia. Need I say more?

Not very well. I live in South Carolina.

They seem to think that we still travel by covered wagon and have to fight of Lakota war parties.
Gun fights and stampedes are a daily occurance, and we lynch someone every few months just for the entertainment.

They also seem to think that because our roads are flat and straight that the posted speed limit is a suggestion and not the law.

@Tachys – you forgot you are all lumberjacks when the lobster season is closed.

@augustlan At least you don’t live in the southern part of WV which has an even worse reputation.

@PhiNotPi How is S.C. portrayed?

I live in Upstate NY. We always get lumped in with the NY City crowd. They’re assholes. We’re considerate and caring. We hate NY City people too.

@augustlan last time I was in Maryland the welcome sign said ‘We Have Crabs’

I have no idea what people think of Pennsylvanians. I think they think our state has the Liberty Bell, the Amish (PA Dutch), and oil and fracking. What does that say about the people? I don’t know. I couldn’t begin to guess.

Tennessee here.
* Davy Crockett.
* As a friend says, it takes ten minutes to drive from north to south and ten hours to drive from east to west. (It’s an exaggeration, but close to the truth. Just look at its shape.)
* It’s a Southern state with a Southern mentality. We are hospitable and fry just about every food imaginable. In twenty years of living here, I have yet to see an interracial couple, despite the population being a solid mix of blacks and whites.
* Country music fans.
* Home of Elvis Presley. (While he was born in Mississippi, we have Graceland. Enough said.)

I still claim New York as my state, even though I haven’t lived their in over 30 years. It will always be home. I think people perceive New York as tough thugs or cold hearted or as snobby, or a welfare state, and uneducated. But New York first of all is larger than just the city. And we have every kind of person you can imagine. Most in the walk with grim face, Hand in one pocket with wallet and hand in the second pocket, ready on the mace. But you can still find people who are willing to help. People were afraid of harlem when I was growing up. But if you stopped and asked someone for directions, you would get about 5 bums coming around to give you directions. They weren’t always right or could always agree but they were eager to help. A few of those bums even helped me out when some creeper was following me. They annoyed me every day of the week with stupid comments but when they saw panic in my eyes, they were quick to ask me what was wrong and how could they help and they did.

I’m in Canada, I live in Québec. Some people literally think we don’t have electricity, hunt whales, chop down trees all day and eat raw onions.
Okay. I’m exaggerating a tad. But I have heard some of the oddest and most clueless things about Québec from other Canadians and people from other countries. Although to be fair, this type of stuff comes from people here and there, rather than the media.
Also no, we don’t shoot moose and shovel the walk all day.
As for the media, well there’s a lot of talk about hokey and the Bell Center. At least Montréal gets acknowledged for something other than that whenever Pink Floyd or Marilyn Manson comes to give concerts here. Having a Ubisoft building also helps, at least when it comes to gaming and stuff. Montréal is known for its good universities/education establishments too.

@wundayatta When I was little I used to think Pennsylvania was in Romania, go figure why lol.

@Symbeline – Je me souviens…we see that a lot in Maine.

When I tell people what state I’m from, I always get the whole, “how can you live in a city that big with that many people” question. I then point out I live 6 hours away from NYC and have only been there once. I guess it’s fair that everyone forgets about upstate New York though. Our politicians always forget about us too.

@Tachys Well…

We started a civil war.
We were extremely pro-slavery and pro-segregation, and some might still be.
We are so far to the Right that even the republicans don’t bother to campaign here.
We have one of the worst performing public school systems in the country
We have one of the least-funded public school systems in the country
We have the 5th highest unemployment rate (9.6%)
We have the 9th lowest median income ($42,442)
We have a pretty high violent crime rate.

Joisey? Faggedaboutit!!

Well, our two greatest claims to fame are the Unabomber and Evel Knievel.

Cowboys, Indians, and Movie Stars.

As a bunch of banana benders.

Im from New Jersey, you tell me. And those douchebags from NY on Jersey shore certainly didnt help our image. There were people I met in Central America that barely knew anything about the US but they still knew about NJ cause that show and thought thats how everyone was here.

People assumed I was a marijuana smoking liberal when told I’m from Oregon. They were correct.

People think someone picked the country up by Maine, and all the fruits and nuts and loose screws fell down to the bottom to California.

But lots of people move here every year, and fall in love with it.

As white Christians who are ready to secede if we have to suffer another 4 Obomanable years under a gun-banning, dog-eating, baby-killing, anti-colonialist, Kenyan Nazi Commyanist Muslim. ~

Either that, or a state full of eccentric hippy surfers.

Ok, @Brian1946, let me guess. Texas? South Carolina? Alabama? Oh hell. The South? Wait. Hippy surfers? That’s Hawaii. Nope. This does not compute.

You better tell me what your state is so I can tell you how I see it, and then you’ll have a clearer idea of how others see it.

@Bellatrix What in the world is a ‘banana bender’?

Being from Massachusetts, I either hear about our historical significance (the tea party, Paul Revere, Pilgrims, etc.) or about our liberal leanings (gay marriage, state healthcare, etc.).

Politically, you usually hear about the Kennedy legacy or our dalliances with Reublican governors (Weld, Romney).

Occasional talk about mobsters, crooked cops, and the big dig fiasco.

And, stereotypically, when speaking of Mass. residents, most people are referring to East of Worcester. Anything past Springfield might as well be New York.

Our food and sports teams get a lot of chatter and our colleges/universities and hospitals get a lot of praise.

As for the people, I’ve heard everything from arrogant to outgoing to assholes to educated.

We’re kind of all of that – we’re basically wicked pissah.

Huh? There’s something besides the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts?

But really. First I’ve heard there was anything of note East of Whoostah.

Northampton: Lesbian capital of the US!

Methinks that state boundaries are way too big to fully make useful generalizations about.

I live in Tampa, Florida.

Apart from being “God’s Waiting Room” and the landing ground for everyone who got sick of New York, the Daily Show broadcast on 28 August pretty much has it covered.

@cprevite I went to one of the best German restuarants in Springfield, but that is one scary city.

@wundayatta: Oh no, we’ll take the lesbians. We like lesbians.

You’re right though, it often feels like we’re two different states. Not unlike NYC and “upstate” New York I imagine.

@Adirondackwannabe: True, but you can find the home of the Yankee Candle Company out that way. Those scents cover anything. :^)

@cprevite And in Pennsylvania there’s Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and then there’s the rest of the state (conservative, hyper-religious farmers).

And the second I stepped into the Yankee Candle Company, I got a full blown headache that didn’t go away for an hour. I won’t go into that place any more. Or any other candle store or scent store.

On the other hand, how about the Vermont Country Store in Weston, VT? Not too much farther North and a whole hell of a lot more interesting. Plus, they sell Moxie!

@wundayatta: Agreed about Yankee Candle. “Undercover Boss” profiled that place last season, and all I could think is, “How can you work there and not have a migraine?!”

And we love Vermont and have been to that store. They do have Moxie and all sorts of other cool stuff. Last Summer we went to VT (great off-season prices) and skunk-holed around antique shops and ate lots of yummy food.

@wundayatta

Clue 1: I think we’re the largest blue state in area.

@Brian1946 Oh. California. It was the white Christian secessionists that threw me off. Whatcha been smokin, kid? Some of that whacky loco surfer weed? Someone’s got a strange idea of what out of staters think of you.

@wundayatta

My first comment that looked like the ranting of a Xtian Identity secessionist was an attempted riff on that mentality, hence the tilde at the end.

I live in AZ and a lot of people think it’s all about golf, skiing and nature walks here.

I lived in one of the southern states for a while and it was seen as bigoted backward and full of red necks.

@Brian1946 Nope. Didn’t get that at all. Thought you were making fun of a Southern state. My bad.

@Pied_Pfeffer

‘Banana bender’ is a slang term for a Queenslander. “Oh you’re a banana bender”. We grow 90% of the countries bananas here and they come with their own bend. I think the inference is that we are so silly or under-occupied that we try to put the bend in our bananas. We are also called Cane Toads (we have lots of them in our state and they are an unpleasant, imported pest).