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

Most of that looks fine, but a few things bother me.
For one thing, the Midwest is generally characterized by manufacturing and industry, no? I'd stick Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas in a different category. Maybe 'The Corny States' or 'The Corn Belt' or something like that.

Um, no, the midwest is definitely not characterized by manufacturing and industry - I'd guess that the most generalized characteristics of the midwest states are actually

1) very flat geography, and
2) urban areas surrounded by vast tracts of farm land - with corn, soybeans, and wheat as the predominating crops, I believe.

And the farm states you refer to are *always* characterized as midwest under every definition of midwest I've seen. On the other hand, Ohio sometimes is not.

The boom of manufacturing and industry in the midwest states is actually a relatively recent phenomenon.

(In reply to Mikey tHM's suggestions): FWIW, I like that grouping - it seems to have the best balance, though I'm sure some would quibble with a few things. No way to make it perfect, of course.

Oh, speaking of quibbling, you have 51 states - blame D.C. for creeping into your list. I think you can just consider it read that D.C. is included without specific mention as a State, seeing as it's not one. It's most likely easiest to say it'll go wherever Maryland gets grouped.

- JD

hi,

I enjoyed the entry.

4 niggles -

Iowa, the 'Hawkeye State', .. However, there are a few urban states - Des Moines is the - ---> urban areas would be better

as mentioned previously, the State Capital of New York isn't mentioned.

Nought mentioned about DC

saying something is a typical mid west / deep south state without really explaining a typical mid west / deep south state is gets kinda confuzzling for us on this side of the atlantic

Jodan, did you see my comments in post 17 & 18?


- X

One more slight correction to the NM entry - the Gila National Forest is, in fact, in the southwestern part of the state near Silver City. Not the Eastern part at all. The Lincoln National Forest is in the Eastern part - H2G2's own Asteroid Lil lives there and is quite an authority on its geography and history, particularly the Lincoln County wars of the late 1800s that saw a one William Barney aka Billy the Kid gain fame. I've only driven through those parts a couple times, but that particular national forest is among my favorites. Of course, the Gila is great too - come to think of it, they're all great!

- JD

Hi people.
This was the prime reason that I delayed putting this into PR for a long time... I didn't think I could keep up with the corrections.

These should be taken care of by the weekend.

Got I think all the comments done except for an intro paragraph for each region. And I'm going to work some sections from another entry into this.

Hey Jodan -

I've been working on a Chicago home site for almost two years (although 'working on' is probably not accurate). I have several unfinished, unedited entries (including one on the Sears Tower) that I could offer. I know your plate is way past full already, but at this hour, it'd be rude NOT to offer.

I could almost offer to enter my Sears Tower entry into PR, but yours'll get edited before mine, so that'd be fairly useless. . .

By the way, nice entry. My only advice, as always, keep it as short as possible. You've done well in this aspect, considering the scope of your work.

Friar

I like this entry giving a brief overview of the states, I can see you've put a lot of work into this. However, I think the few landmarks you have mentioned at the start don't fit in, a separate entry on these would be much better.

In any case the title needs changing, it lets down the standard of your entry. If you don't want to say 'States & landmarks of the USA', do find a better word than 'things'.

is tautologous. 'Some...are' or remove 'Some of'.

Generally there's quite a lot of repetitive vocabulary. Maybe you can turn some of the sentences round to avoid this as well as using some alternative adjectives.

I'm also unhappy about commenting on the people of Arkansas as though they are different elsewhere.

Why the change of style? Why not leave that sentence out?

What are 'hoosiers'?

New Jersey conatins a typo - 'touristg'

Hawaii - could we have a date to indicate how recent?

Have to stop there, run out of time at present. Good luck with editing!

OK, will post these starting points for intro paragraphs one at a time.
---------------
South -

When people from outside the US think about America, stereotypes of the South are what often pop to mind - probably in large part because many of those characteristics which seem to make Americans 'different' seem to be strongest there. The South is known for the strong influence fundamentalist Christianity has there, affecting everything from politics to education to gender and race issues. While the massive plantations and ranches seen in old films are run differently today, they still play a key role in the economy and lifestyle of the South. Another characteristic which comes through is that of 'Southern hospitality' - more than anywhere else in hte US, people in the South are known for welcoming strangers with open arms, friendly smiles, and tables laden with Southern food. Those from outside the region are often confused (or even frightened) by how often complete strangers will smile and start up a conversation.
-------------------------

Before I work out the other ones, is that the type of thing you'd want?

Albuquerque is still misspelled in your entry (as "Albequerque"). Understandable, actually.

- JD

Hi Friar
I don't see why an entry on the Sear Tower couldn't get accepted if this gets accepted first. After all, this entry only contains one sentence about it - "Chicago houses Sears Tower, another of the most famous towers in the world."

Teasswill's comments are taken care of.

Mikey - that's perfect. I did a very little bit of editing with it, but it's in now. You're now credited. Please do keep writing these (but concentrate on the EG front page you're doing now - that needs doing. This'll get done when it gets done )

JD - Albuquerque has been given its name back

I've also added an opening section from another entry, moved the Landmarks and Roadside America part into a different section below the states and changed the title to 'The United States of America'. This should be intended to replace the crumby entry on the USA A260461 instead of what is now the Americanism entry. The blob from A260461 is also in this entry now.

By the way, I'm still very interested in researchers leaving little quotable opinions (especially humorous stuff, it can get tedious reading through a list of 50 states) and experiences about their states so that I can put them into the entry. I think it would help spice the entry up a bit.

Probably best to start a conversation below the entry with these, so it doesn't clog up the corrections superhighway .

This is great! Hard to believe there isn't something similar already.

Couple of things:

"I thought I knew Texas pretty well, but I had no notion of its size until I campaigned it.
-Ann Richards, former governor of Texas"

I'd agree that this would go better after the section on Texas, not before - at the moment, it reads like you're still talking abou Tennessee.

Also, you describe Massachusetts as a "historical" state - I think historic would be better. In fact, I'm not sure historical is a word!

Sure it is. Probably not the best word, though, so I shall change it.

I like to put quotes concerning a certain piece of content before that content. I think it would be silly to put a quote about Texas after the information about it. Maybe it's just me.

If you want the quote before the bit, I would format it like this:

Texas

quote bit in blockquotes

then the paragraph

It really is confusing as it is now, though.

OK, here's a start at the Pacific states intro:

The Pacific states are known as being rather more liberal than most of the country, tending to be more open than most states to ‘liberal’ ideas such as gay marriage, medical use of marijuana, protection of the environment, and universal health care. On the other hand, this is far from true across the board – each of these states has large and powerful conservative contingents as well, with an especial focus on issues such as access to natural resources and combatting illegal immigration.

More than anything, though, the Pacific states are known for their weather and their scenery. California and Hawaii are known for the sunshine and the beaches; Oregon and Washington are known for forests, mountains, and rain; and Alaska is known for the glaciers, mountains, and snow. It shouldn't be surprising that tourism is a big industry in this region.

Calling Alaska liberal?

Alaska is actually quite liberal in some respects (social welfare, for one), and conservative in others (gun control, natural resources) -- but again, it's about generalizations. None of these states are liberal across the board, all of them are known for electing Republicans a good chunk of the time, etc. The intro paragraphs are about how people perceive these regions, in generalizations -- so I try to point out that while for many people in the US, you say "west coast" and they think "liberal", it's not anywhere near as black and white is that.

How do you think we should revise it to make this more clear?