h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Things And States in The United States of America - A3776196
Author: Jodan - What's that green stuff on the lawn? - U201497

See F48874?thread=610194 for details on this project.

This is some information on the landmarks and states in America. If you've been to a landmark (maybe think I've forgotten one), been to a state (I don't think I've forgotten any of those, but who knows?) or live in one of the states, and wish to offer an opinion or some thoughts, I would like some nice quotes for the entry.

Well, there's an edited entry on Missouri you missed: A2998542

A site you might enjoy/find useful that I've come across several times while working on the Route 66 project (which sadly won't be finished in time to be included here): http://www.roadsideamerica.com

I'll try to write up a bit on the Arch for you, I've been meaning to for about the last three years anyway. This is the kick in the pants I needed to do it, it's just that my plate is so full right now. I'll see what I can do.

You seem to have missed Great Britain off the list of states.

I was also going to mention you could drop a note in the US researchers groups to see if anyone has anything to add.

Northwest - A537428
Southwest - A594902
Central - A595163
Northeast - A565940
Southeast - A583760

One sentence probably doesn't do the Arch justice.

That site is wonderful. I think I came across it when I was researching the World's Second Biggest Ball of Twine.

Probably a good idea to see if anyone has anything to say. Thanks, I'll do that.

A3420442 Washington State

I think that both of those entries were added just after I wrote this entry originally.

You'll probably want to stab me in the neck, but I really think this should be broken down even further.

I'd like to see the states get their own entry and another one on the things and landmarks. Given the glimpse of the future, I'm strongly in favour of smaller, tighter entries rather than one of this size.

You've got great content in here. Did you put this through the collaborative writing workshop?

I would be worried that some over-eager Scout might snatch this too soon!

Keep up the good work!

Oh, and New Jersey is also home to M&M/Mars and is the birthplace of the M&M. And Edison's lab is a National Park (Historic Site) isn't it?

Did New Jersey get the deed for Ellis Island too? Or did New York retain that? I reckon Ellis Island might be worth a mention given the sheer number of Americans that passed through there.

Eh. Even if I did want to stab you in the neck, the sharpest smiley is


Are you talking about the breaking down of entries by the eds recently because of server troubles? Yes, well, I'll let them deal with that in-house if they feel the need to, because it's just a lot easier for me to try to put this through PR as one piece.

I didn't put this through the CWW. Except for the bit on Maine you did, this is all mine. (until I add some New Jersey information) I'd like to be given the chance to gather information, quotes and impressions from my fellow h2g2 researchers before this could be selected, though.

Overall, I think that this entry could be broken down into several entries, Roadside America being one of them. Hmmm... Actually, an entry on Roadside America would be a lot of fun to write. Forget that I said anything!

In all seriousness, though, if you're going to talk about Roadside America at all, you have to (IMHO), at a minimum, throw in at least a mention of Wall Drug, which started life as nothing more than a small drugstore that advertised, as its major tourist draw, free ice water! These folks are the masters of roadside marketing, to whom all others must pay homage!

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/SDWALdrug.html

"The name Wall Drug strikes a familiar note of horror with anyone who's driven the interstate system west of the Appalachians or east of the Rockies with a back seat full of screaming children. 'Mommy, Daddy, lookit the funny signs! Can we stop huh please huh can we just for a minute puh-leeeeeze?' Those who have been denied this experience may still have heard of Wall Drug if they've visited the North or South Poles, for even at the ends of the earth, Wall Drug has posted signs advertising the mileage to itself."

It seems that recently, the eds have been more strict about keeping entries shorter. A few of my entries were broken down because of this policy.

If this gets through PR, I'd like to work with the sub to break it down, but I really would like to keep this in one piece until then just so that I'll have three PR threads instead of eight or nine.

If possible, I'd like to have a single sub with all the entries. That would be nice, but it wouldn't be a big deal to work with three.

I'm not interested in writing a Roadside America entry, though that is an excellent idea, but I'll try to work in a mention to Wall Drug somewhere.

"It seems that recently, the eds have been more strict about keeping entries shorter. A few of my entries were broken down because of this policy."

It saddens me to hear that. Some subjects are bigger than others and need bigger entries. A lot of these should be just one entry, for the sake of continuity.

I'll try to keep it in mind for my future entries, but I'm not exactly known for my brevity.

NBY

Wow, another good entry by Jodan. This one is huge in scope - not sure what I can say about splitting it all up ... that's not my forte as I actually prefer lengthy articles (even webpages) to heavily linked and broken up ones. I'm very unusual in that respect.

Minor editorial notes:

A few places I noticed that you used "capitol" instead of "capital." the former spelling refers to the actual buildings where the seat of government for a state meets (as in "the capitol building where the legistlature meets in Dover") as opposed to the city that is the capital city, as in "Dover is the capital of Deleware."

There appears to be an extra "the" in the first sentence of the Kansas section.

In the Minnesota section, I would hesitate to call the mighty Mississippi River the "life source of the western part of the country" - only because it's not. At least, not for those of us that live in the western part. It's quite a ways to east of the continental divide after all, and thus has little effect on those of us living a thousand miles west of it. A minor quibble not intended to besmudge the reputation of such an amazing river at all.

Typo - "touristg" - in New Jersey section.

On New Mexico - my home state - you could mention that its border with Mexico is actually the smallest/shortest border between a US state and Mexico. Arizona, California, and especially Texas all have much longer borders with Mexico than New Mexico does. Half of our southern border is actually with Texas. I know. Oh, by the way, it's spelled "Albuquerque." Who can blame ya for that typo?

You missed mentioning the capital city of New York! (Albany, I think it is)

A lot of farming is done in North Dakota. That's about the extent of anything exciting or noteworthy that I can think of, sorry to those that live there. Actually, the few ND natives I've met love it there - love the farming and the communities and their families, so I guess it's all good by them.

It seems like there are always little tidbits that could or should be added to each state's paragraph or two - like, Milwaukee is home to the Harley-Davidson motocycle company (an American icon) as well as numerous American large scale lager (or just beer) breweries (more icons). Yeah, I have family from there. Still, I'm not sure how to balance things between each state, let alone keep it under 100 pages long.

Well - that's enough commenting for now.

- JD

To me, the start-off with a list of unrelated landmarks is rather offputting. My suggestion would be to just focus on the states -- the landmarks can all be incorporated within the states. You mention other landmarks within the state paragraphs, and I don't see any reason not to do that with all of them.

I'm also not so sure if organizing states alphabetically makes the most sense -- I would probably do it by region, and have a short paragraph at the beginning of each region describing what makes it distinct from the others. I'd be willing to help write those if you'd like.

I also feel like there are too many unwarranted overgeneralizations here, such as "Arkansas, with a reputation for being poor, is full of kind and pleasant people." Every state in the union has kind and pleasant people, Arkansas is no different.

The quotes seem very out of place as they are -- I would put them after the state rather than before, or within the paragraph even. That said, I really don't feel that they add anything to the entry unless you're willing to do so for *all* of the states (again, I'm willing to help you there if that's the direction you want to go in).

Specifying Oklahahoma as originally "Indian land" seems rather, well, specious. Every last state was inhabited by other peoples before it became part of the US, in most cases by Native Americans. Oklahoma's uniqueness in this regard was that a large number of different tribes were basically "herded" into Oklahoma and held on reservations there -- but that is also the case for several other states. There are quite a few states where you state that one of their major features is having "many Indian reservations" -- I would either specify the actual tribes involved, or not mention it at all. The way it is currently worded is not very useful and borders on crass.

Likewise, specifying that Texas "became" a slave state in 1846 gives the wrong impression -- there were slaves held in Texas both before and after that year.

That's all for now, but there will be more later -- enough things popped out at me on first read through that frankly I'd want to go through state-by-state and do some checking on things.

Oh, and I would also add links to the official websites for each of the states.

"To me, the start-off with a list of unrelated landmarks is rather offputting. My suggestion would be to just focus on the states -- the landmarks can all be incorporated within the states. You mention other landmarks within the state paragraphs, and I don't see any reason not to do that with all of them."

It gives me the opportunity to go into more detail. I haven't really yet. Most of them are one-liners, but I'm hoping I'll get some quotes from my h2g2 friends or some interesting information. I don't want to interrupt a state's information with a long bit about a landmark. If I don't get more information or experiences for the landmark section, I'll consider phasing it into the states section.

"I'm also not so sure if organizing states alphabetically makes the most sense -- I would probably do it by region, and have a short paragraph at the beginning of each region describing what makes it distinct from the others. I'd be willing to help write those if you'd like. "

Interesting idea. I think I did them alphabetically because my almanac and atlas list them alphabetically. I think I shall group them by regions, and I would certainly like some help with some of them. Of course, this does open up a can of worms, because different sources list different states in different regions and there are several sets of regions depending on who you ask. I'm thinking New England, instead of Northeast

"Specifying Oklahahoma as originally "Indian land" seems rather, well, specious."

Man, I can't do anything without it being specious, nowadays.

I'll take care of these things.

Rhode Island stuff...

It was founded by Roger Williams, after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious views. Not as you say Roger Sherman.

Popular tourist destination is Newport which was home to the 'summer cottages' of the rich and famous during the Gilded Age. Most of these mansions are open to public tours. Newport is also home to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Maryland things...

I always thought the 'Old Line State' had to do with the Mason-Dixon line separating the north from south (Maryland's northern border with Pennsylvania).

You might want to mention Baltimore as its largest city and harbour where the National Anthem was written. Inner Harbor is a popular destination with loads of shops, a Hard Rock Cafe, an ESPN Zone, the National Aquarium in Baltimore (edited entry on topic), and Fort McHenry.

Delaware stuff...

Dover is home to Dover Air Force Base which is one of the largest in the US and serves as the entry point and morgue for American military personnel who die overseas.

Also, Delaware does not have sales tax so people from surrounding states swarm to its shopping outlets. It has a rather nice seashore which are guarded by The Towers (A789320)

Defining regions can be a bit tricky, because obviously there are subdivisions within regions, and overlapping regions, etc. Here's a good link with some relatively official definitions: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/regdef.html Unfortunately, none of those provide distinct, mutually exclusive regions which cover all 50 states -- inevitably, places like Kentucky and Mississippi are left out of a good chunk of regions.

With some slight variations on the regions to make them more culturally relevant and both mutually exclusive and comprehensive, here's how I would group them:

New England (6) - Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont

Middle Atlantic States (6) - Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania

South (14) - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi

Midwest (12) - Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin

Rocky Mountain West(8) - Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming

Pacific (5) - Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, California

If you want to go with those groupings, I'd be willing to write an intro paragraph for each.