Welcome to Your State Stereotype
November 5, 2018 9:41 AM   Subscribe

Perhaps you've noticed, as I did on a recent short road trip, that Google Maps welcomes you to a new state with a cute little icon. They've done a good and amusing job of capturing what each state is known for in icon form. Maine in a lobster costume, Wisconsin is wearing a cheesehead, Oregon has a bearded lumberjack, New Jersey a diner waitress. The internet has stepped up to catalog them all here.
posted by brookeb (96 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Reminder: Canada is not, appearance in this list to the contrary, a confused rogue socialist US state spread thinly atop the 49th parallel.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:46 AM on November 5, 2018 [24 favorites]


Stereotyping Rhode Island by the Tennis Hall of Fame is disappointing. Where's the guy with a stuffie for a head screaming about the Red Sox?
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:48 AM on November 5, 2018 [10 favorites]


wtf why is that NH?
posted by ChuraChura at 9:49 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


I mean, granted, it looks kind of like me and I am from NH, but I'm not particularly iconic nor are ladies in glasses and a cardigan carrying a lot of books limited only to the Granite State.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:50 AM on November 5, 2018 [12 favorites]


Why do the have no eyes?
posted by Pembquist at 9:52 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Neither are bearded lumberjacks :)
(on non-preview: riffing on ChuraChura's last comment)
posted by fraula at 9:52 AM on November 5, 2018


I assume the Massachusetts pilgrim is also racist and a wicked bad driver.
posted by bondcliff at 9:53 AM on November 5, 2018 [16 favorites]


Sure, Starbucks is known for the frapaccino, but we don't really do them as a matter of course. They don't fend off the chill and gray like a nice hot americano.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:53 AM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Why are Aretha and Prince the same color as Elvis?
posted by desuetude at 9:56 AM on November 5, 2018 [7 favorites]


Wikipedia helpfully has a page listing Boxers from Alabama. So, I guess that's Evander Holyfield with the diamonds hovering over his shoulders.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 9:57 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Or Joe Louis.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 9:58 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


It's fitting that the Birds of War welcome you to The United States of America.
posted by peeedro at 10:00 AM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


wellred: a pilgrim's big brown beaver

(from Massachusetts, in Canada...these are not my icons, yo)
posted by wellred at 10:02 AM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


I had a quasi-party game I would amuse myself with in college: I would play a word-association game where I asked people to say the first thing that popped into their head when I said the name of a state.

"Texas," I might say first.
"Cowboys," they'd often respond.

i went through a lot of other states first, and they always had a ready response - sometimes a stereotype, sometimes a flattering thing:

"New Jersey."
"Turnpikes."
"California."
"Hollywood."
"Virginia."
"Beaches."
"Florida."
"Disney World."

And so on. But then I would always end with my home state:

"Connecticut."

And - every single time, they would take a breath - and say nothing, brow furrowing when they realized that nothing was coming into their head.

Ultimately what I was doing was accumulating evidence for my teen-years claim that "Connecticut is a boring state without any discernible identity." But the thing is, that's a claim that keeps on proving true; apparently they couldn't come up with any sexier or more fun icon for Connecticut and were forced to go, "....uh....oh, hey, the guy who invented the dictionary is from Connecticut, let's just use him."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:03 AM on November 5, 2018 [26 favorites]


Apparently New Hampshire is home to the oldest state library, thus the librarian.
posted by brookeb at 10:03 AM on November 5, 2018 [14 favorites]


Is NH for Dartmouth? Or, maybe that's supposed to be Christa McAuliffe or Grace Metalious? If Maine got a lobster, then NH could have had a moose. Vermont is pretty cute though.

Also, Betsy Ross for PA! Suck it, the rest of PA, southeastern PA wins again. Delaware's is perfectly understandable -- America's first state. And that NJ waitress is for NJ's diners? Pretty tenuous.
posted by gladly at 10:04 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Also, Betsy Ross for PA! Suck it, the rest of PA, southeastern PA wins again.

We're used to it.

Even though Philly probably belongs more to Jersey than the rest of PA
posted by octothorpe at 10:07 AM on November 5, 2018 [9 favorites]


Illinois: Land of L(i)n(co)l(n)
posted by davejay at 10:08 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Even though Philly probably belongs more to Jersey than the rest of PA

It's flying batteries for you, sir!

posted by gladly at 10:10 AM on November 5, 2018 [11 favorites]


South Carolina's faceless southern belle is giving me Westworld vibes.
posted by octobersurprise at 10:12 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Looks like a similar gender split to the rest of the tech world!
posted by spindrifter at 10:13 AM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


NJ is a DINER waitress.
AR has Crater of diamonds state park
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:13 AM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


Kentucky's icon is wearing a fabulous Derby hat, yet holding a champagne glass?? I guess "julep cup" didn't come back in the first page of search results.
posted by reseeded at 10:18 AM on November 5, 2018 [11 favorites]


DC's mascot apparently captured while... taking a gavel to the face? ouch. participatory democracy looks rough.
posted by halation at 10:21 AM on November 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


North Carolina seems to have two icons, one shared with Georgia (dude in a propellor beanie) and one old-timey aviator. The second makes sense I guess (I mean, we have the Wright Flyer on our license plate) but the first has me stumped.

> Even though Philly probably belongs more to Jersey than the rest of PA

After hearing my nth recitation of what Pennsylvania is like based on somebody's opinion of Philadelphia sports fans, I retorted that Philly has as much to do with the rest of Pennsylvania as NYC has with upstate New York, which didn't work well because their idea of upstate NY was White Plains. It's not an argument any Pennsylvanian from north of I-76 will ever win.
posted by ardgedee at 10:30 AM on November 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


Why is Google dressing up the AOL guy in little costumes?
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:35 AM on November 5, 2018 [12 favorites]


Apparently you get the propeller beanie if you don't have data service when it pops up.
posted by sysinfo at 10:37 AM on November 5, 2018 [6 favorites]


Relieved that North Carolina's little dude isn't a legislator hell-bent on destroying public education and voting rights. Or Silent Sam.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 10:37 AM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


EC, Connecticut makes me think of insurance and fake nutmeg. Which may prove your point.

Does Hawai'i have one?
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:40 AM on November 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


On the desktop google maps you can turn the pegman into a mermaid by dragging it on beachy locations like South Florida, the Galapagos, Bali, or Hawaii.
posted by peeedro at 10:41 AM on November 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


I am wondering if the icons are the same for each person who views them. I'm sure Google knows the general racial / gender / economic class etc makeup of people using their applications. What if they showed colonialist-relevant icons to white conservatives, and civil rights icons to people of colour, etc.

I'm not saying they do with this particular circumstance in maps, except that I am saying they probably DO something like this with search results, because why would they not? We get most of our utility from search results return information centred in consensus reality, but we also know that search results are very specifically targeted to what the engine thinks will give them the most money (in general).

I guess I'm saying that I think we sold ourselves out not just a few years ago when we logged onto Facebook, but a couple decades ago when we started allowing cookies to track who we are across browser sessions, and that being an identifiable web user is probably not, long term, the best thing for humanity.

This little example certainly leads me down a lot of twisty paths of "where we went wrong" and "what might we do about it" but i wish the answers weren't so hard.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:45 AM on November 5, 2018


I'm guessing they went with Betsy Ross because Hershey bars are kinda hard to anthropomorphize, and what else would you do? Scrapple, pretzels, Apple pie with a slice of cheddar, Amish, steel worker?
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:45 AM on November 5, 2018


I am saddened that Delaware is just a dude in an American flag tshirt who has just been to the Christiana mall. I realize that Delaware is big on the fact that they don't have sales tax and has little else to distinguish itself but they could at least have gone with Caesar Rodney again like they did on the quarter.
posted by darchildre at 10:53 AM on November 5, 2018


Delaware has so many other possibilities!

-A little cartoon corporate CEO with his hands in the pockets of a little cartoon politician
-A little cartoon young person literally running to Philadelphia
-A little cartoon person driving a car on 95
-Just copy the icon for Pennsylvania or New Jersey
posted by Automocar at 11:05 AM on November 5, 2018 [18 favorites]


EC, Connecticut makes me think of insurance and fake nutmeg. Which may prove your point.

Yeah, I tried that same word-association thing a couple times after college and got "insurance" or "suburbs" a couple times. But there still was a little frown and a couple seconds' hesitation before they came up with that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:06 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


-A little cartoon Wayne and Garth making fun of Delaware!
posted by Navelgazer at 11:06 AM on November 5, 2018 [6 favorites]




You know, it never fails. Bring up Delaware, and someone will mention either Wayne's World or The Simpsons. Aren't we well overdue for a new boring dig at my home state?

I swear to god, being a native Delawarean must be what like Canadians feel like whenever they meet an American.
posted by Automocar at 11:10 AM on November 5, 2018


They used a beekeeper for North Dakota, which means all they used was a quick search to find we produce a lot of honey. But that's not really representative of the state. A wheat farmer would have been more accurate. Or for the western part of the state: [insert derogatory oil field reference here, be sure to mention meth].
posted by Ber at 11:13 AM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


Aren't we well overdue for a new boring dig at my home state?

I mean, at least mix it up once in a while with a Fight Club joke or something!
posted by darchildre at 11:15 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yay, Ohio has an astronaut!!
posted by cooker girl at 11:25 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


As a former Floridian, I’d like to propose replacing the state’s sorority girl(?) icon with James Franco’s Alien character for Springbreakers.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:29 AM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


Aren't we well overdue for a new boring dig at my home state?

i mean
it's that or we make fun of you for being prominent nightmare-beasts of capitalism
so take your pick here
posted by halation at 11:30 AM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Reminder: Canada is not, appearance in this list to the contrary, a confused rogue socialist US state spread thinly atop the 49th parallel.

The icons are clearly US-centric as Canada is just one big undifferentiated mass separating the continental US from Russia. (You're welcome)

But if they have provincial icons I dunno exactly how it would go. Like, would the icons for Saskatchewan and Manitoba be the same? Would Alberta just the the Texas icon and hope no one notices?
posted by GuyZero at 11:33 AM on November 5, 2018 [6 favorites]


Yeah, I tried that same word-association thing a couple times after college and got "insurance" or "suburbs" a couple times. But there still was a little frown and a couple seconds' hesitation before they came up with that.

FWIW, I also grew up in CT, and the only thing that leapt to mind as a state icon is a desolate stretch of I-84, standing between you and your destination city, bereft of everything except those few trees without the common sense to sprout in a more interesting state.

You could probably capture the image with a very pale Google guy, wearing a sensible pair of pants on his way to the mall where the JC Penney used to be. Probably difficult to convey the sense of forlorn despair through the medium, though.
posted by Mayor West at 11:33 AM on November 5, 2018 [8 favorites]


Shouldn't Delaware be a guy in overalls with a Punkin Chunker?
posted by notsnot at 11:36 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


I so happy that Minnesota has officially latched onto Prince and quit clinging to Charles Schulz as its exalted native born.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 11:37 AM on November 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


Does Hawai'i have one?

Presumably, since you can't drive to Hawaii, they didn't make one for us. No doubt it would have been a touristy hula outfit.

I also grew up in CT

Five ideas:

1) An 19th century sailor (because of Mystic)
2) A Banker (because, I mean, you know)
3) A Female Politician (because Ella Grasso, first woman governor who had not previous been married to a governor)
4) A Preppy (because, I mean, if you lived there you'd know)
5) P.T. Barnum (born in Bethel and his museum is in Bridgeport)
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:39 AM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


But if they have provincial icons I dunno exactly how it would go.

Saskatchewan: wheat field with an oil rig in it
Manitoba: wheat field with an oil rig in it
Alberta: oil field with a wheat stalk in it
Ontario: a bunch of trees and bad electoral decisions
Quebec: an anglophone getting yelled at
posted by halation at 11:42 AM on November 5, 2018 [12 favorites]


the #1 on DE is because it was the 1st state.
posted by brujita at 12:01 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


EmpressCallipygos: Ultimately what I was doing was accumulating evidence for my teen-years claim that "Connecticut is a boring state without any discernible identity."

I think about half the states in the country have that "no collectively-agreed-upon quality" quality, though. Or at least a quarter of them? I mean, most people can't even name all fifty, so it figures there are a few duds.

On the other hand, given that states can be listed in an order unambiguously, it's mathematically provable that there are no uninteresting states. So I'm not sure where to fall on that.
posted by InTheYear2017 at 12:02 PM on November 5, 2018


it's mathematically provable that there are no uninteresting states.

On the one hand, the math is solid. On the other hand, proof by induction has clearly never been to the northern half of the state of Connecticut, where creative impulses go to die and the living envy the dead.
posted by Mayor West at 12:07 PM on November 5, 2018 [6 favorites]


RI should have been a guy waving a torch in front of a burning ship. Or a figure passed out in a pile of Dunkin’ wrappers.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:07 PM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


I mean the "split California into a bunch of states" plan is daft, but nevertheless thinking about what icon is most appropriate for California really does highlight how the place is like six or seven different states that just happen to all be in one state. Even the "uhh someone at the beach I guess?" compromise they used doesn't really work for most of the place... or even for most of coastal California, given that she doesn't have a wetsuit on.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 12:08 PM on November 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


As a proud New Jerseyan, I'm charmed by -- and even thankful for -- the diner waitress.
posted by kimberussell at 12:23 PM on November 5, 2018 [7 favorites]


The Maryland one is a guy dressed as a blue crab, which checks out. We would also have accepted 'guy dressed as canister of Old Bay' or 'guy on the Natty Bo can.'
posted by nonasuch at 12:44 PM on November 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


Washington is close, but they should be drinking coffee in the rain and not wearing a raincoat or using an umbrella, really.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:53 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


. . . Canada is just one big undifferentiated mass separating the continental US from Russia.

(1) Alaska is part of the continent, i assure you.
(2) And is closer to Russia.
(3) I have no sense of humor.
(4) PROFIT!?!

(Sadly, i expect if you drove from Yukon into Alaska it would only show the “Welcome to the United States of America” message because a country change would take precedence over a state-level change.)
posted by D.C. at 12:55 PM on November 5, 2018


why can't they throw upstate a bone and make the NY one an apple
posted by poffin boffin at 12:56 PM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Connecticut could have just gone with the state motto and put a person in a constitution costume and then I would have at least know what it was supposed to be. Webster took me a little bit because I hadn't known he was from there.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:56 PM on November 5, 2018


wrt jersey i assume pork roll doesn't translate well into icon form
posted by poffin boffin at 12:56 PM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


it's mathematically provable that there are no uninteresting states.

It has also been mathematically provable that Northeastern Connecticut has both the most average citizenry and the most boring weather.

(I grew up on one of the towns mentioned in those links, and the other one was the next town over.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:59 PM on November 5, 2018


(Sadly, i expect if you drove from Yukon into Alaska it would only show the “Welcome to the United States of America” message because a country change would take precedence over a state-level change.)

I suspect if you're driving from the Yukon to Alaska you're not sweating the Google Maps either.
posted by GuyZero at 1:20 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Georgia should be a police officer or some other official telling people of color that they can't vote.
posted by LeLiLo at 1:24 PM on November 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


Kentucky's icon is wearing a fabulous Derby hat, yet holding a champagne glass?? I guess "julep cup" didn't come back in the first page of search results.
posted by reseeded at 1:18 PM on November 5


I know, right? A bourbon glass, at the very least!

Although to be frank, I was disappointed that Google went with a human. I was hoping for a horse.
posted by magstheaxe at 1:32 PM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


New Hampshire should be a rugged-looking old man, with no face. Granite Staters will get it.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 1:39 PM on November 5, 2018 [6 favorites]


It took me waaaay too long to realize the United States icon was a guy dressed up as a bald eagle. My head was trying to parse it as a very drab daredevil.
posted by politikitty at 1:40 PM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


*Wistfully* Oh, to be from a place where ladies in glasses and a cardigan carrying a lot of books might be considered iconic...
posted by she's not there at 2:01 PM on November 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


Kentucky should be Hunter.
posted by sjswitzer at 2:03 PM on November 5, 2018


I'm sure Google knows the general racial / gender / economic class etc makeup of people using their applications.

An off-topic side note: a few years ago on my birthday, I was kinda freaked out when Google greeted me with an image of a birthday cake and "Happy Birthday, Bridget"—I immediately closed my laptop and started wondering who had been fucking with my computer and when had they had access. (My son set me straight while laughing at my reaction.)
posted by she's not there at 2:12 PM on November 5, 2018


When I think Oklahoma I think death row prisoner so I'm glad Google went positive.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:14 PM on November 5, 2018


Indiana...Expected checkered flags, got checkered flags.
(kind of surprised it wasn’t basketball, though)
posted by Thorzdad at 2:24 PM on November 5, 2018


Northeastern Connecticut has [...] the most boring weather.

In fairness, the typical weather in Storrs at least three months of the year would constitute an emergency in a fair bit of the rest of the country. It's just... not remarkable, but simultaneously not bad enough to give the state a reputation for impressively harsh winters like northern New England, or the upper midwest or wherever.

Which is, I suppose, exactly the point. Connecticut: Unpleasant, but not enough that anybody is going to be impressed.

Sometime later this month will be the inaugural snowstorm of the season, and sometime after that a whole bunch of new arrivals to UConn, many of them foreign students with inexplicably expensive, rear-wheel-drive cars, will begin learning how not to drive in the winter. It's what passes for entertainment.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:34 PM on November 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


"Connecticut."
And - every single time, they would take a breath - and say nothing, brow furrowing when they realized that nothing was coming into their head.

Tbh, my first thought would be "white people," but if I were surrounded by white people, I would feel bad and not say it. This has nothing to do with my limited experience of Connecticut (Yale library, a mall in Danbury), but is based on The Ice Storm and Revolutionary Road and The Stepford Wives and I'm sure there were other suburban adultery novels that I've read and forgotten.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:48 PM on November 5, 2018


Just so you know, yes, Arizonans really do have cactus costumes. We don't wear them all the time, though, just special occasions like Halloween and rodeos.
posted by Quasirandom at 2:49 PM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


This article is much like real life insofar as Indiana doesn't need to exist.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:15 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


I am going to go against the tide here, and say something KIND about Connecticut: when I read that, my immediate thought was "Katherine Hepburn's accent."

Look, I'm totally aware that her specific Connecticut accent was, at its height, spoken by, like, twelve people, and today, is spoken entirely by ONE drag queen somewhere in the Midwest who just doesn't have the butt to do any of the more common choices, and who looks exactly like Mitt Romney when NOT in drag. But still... Katharine Hepburn, Connecticut. You could do worse, and, apparently, usually do.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 3:21 PM on November 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


"Connecticut."
And - every single time, they would take a breath - and say nothing, brow furrowing when they realized that nothing was coming into their head.


6) A guy in a derby hat (because of all the hat making and because of Derby)
7) Mark Twain (a better match for Missouri to be sure, but he lived in Hartford for years and wrote 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court")
8) A heavy smoker (tobacco fields)
9) Somebody who is in half a Red Sox uniform and half a Mets uniform
10) A very tall woman in UConn basketball gear
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:26 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


"Connecticut."

And - every single time, they would take a breath - and say nothing, brow furrowing when they realized that nothing was coming into their head.


You need to send them all a link to the greatest song ever written about Connecticut (very NSFW), which is so catchy that they will never face that problem again. Indeed, this earworm / brain parasite of a song will ensure that any time Connecticut comes up, it will take superhuman effort not to start quoting.

"Can't afford to buy antiques, so we'll just copulate!"
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 3:37 PM on November 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


we must stop Alabama from obtaining the rest of the Chaos Emeralds and becoming Hyper Alabama
posted by taquito sunrise at 3:53 PM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


I am going to go against the tide here, and say something KIND about Connecticut: when I read that, my immediate thought was "Katherine Hepburn's accent."

Fine, Connecticut can be represented by Katherine Hepburn holding a bowl of keys.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:31 PM on November 5, 2018 [6 favorites]


Mississippi's icon is not, of course, a murderous Klansman, although that is exactly what I thought of when I pulled up the article, and I'm from there. They must not have been able to think of anything nice, either, because they went with a bass fisherman. They could have at least used a blues musician or an alcoholic writer.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:50 PM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


*Wistfully* Oh, to be from a place where ladies in glasses and a cardigan carrying a lot of books might be considered iconic...
posted by she's not there at 14:01 on November 5


Eponysterical
posted by otherchaz at 5:19 PM on November 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


10) A very tall woman in UConn basketball gear

This one is correct, actually.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 5:25 PM on November 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


Sadly the Delaware icon is probably best summed by an able-bodied 30 year old with a cardboard "Homeless GOD BLESS" sign.
posted by sydnius at 6:50 PM on November 5, 2018


Idaho is some potatoes and... my granddad?

Why is Missouri the Fair? If there’s really a lot of cotton candy, that’s my next trip. Google wouldn’t lie to me, right?
posted by Knowyournuts at 6:56 PM on November 5, 2018


Yay, Ohio has an astronaut!!

Not just any astronaut...
posted by LeLiLo at 7:13 PM on November 5, 2018


Why is Missouri the Fair?

Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, meet me at the [world’s] fair...” Note the turn-of-the-century bow tie and the ice cream cone, which was – among other places – popularized there in 1904.
posted by LeLiLo at 7:21 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Blossom Dearie has to have the last word on this one: Rhode Island Is Famous for You . (I hope the link works, posting surreptitiously from work.)
posted by huimangm at 10:01 PM on November 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Oregon has a lumberjack? They became an endangered species after the SPOTTED-OWL-endangered-species fiasco, and they might have all starved to death. Or followed the lumber companies back to Georgia.
posted by Cranberry at 12:36 AM on November 6, 2018


I know, right? A bourbon glass, at the very least!

Although to be frank, I was disappointed that Google went with a human. I was hoping for a horse.
posted by magstheaxe at 4:32 PM on November 5
Yes, exactly!!
Kentucky should be Hunter.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:03 PM on November 5
Neigh.
posted by reseeded at 7:31 AM on November 6, 2018


Should not Connecticut have a guy or a gal in spandex suplexing someone into the mat? Perhaps leaping from a Naugahyde chair?
posted by turkeybrain at 8:14 AM on November 6, 2018


I'm a Virginian, so let me say this first: fuck George Washington. Though, let's be real, we don't have any good options. We have:
1) All the colonial shit (aka thousands of murdered and displaced Natives from the Powhatan confederacy (Pamunkey, Mattaponi, and Chickahominy tribes mainly), like Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, etc
2) All the president shit - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William H. Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, and Woodrow Wilson were all born here
3) Related to that is collegiate shit - UVA and VaTech
4) Even more related is the military stuff- largest naval base in the world, lots of naval museums, Arlington cemetery, the marine corps war memorial, national museum of the marine corps, this list could be a 700 page book
5) Watershed. We're not really known for the chesapeake bay, that usually gets lumped in w Maryland (I presume because there's nothing else in maryland). But we have the state aquarium, the virginia institute of marine science, etc. We're currently under way in saving the CB's oyster population. I would by okay with being known for this stuff.
6) And, lastly, what I wish people would pay more attention to - we're home to several national forests, Shenandoah national park, parts of the blue ridge mountains, a sizeable chunk of the AT, allegheny mountains, the luray caverns, Chincoteague island (where there are herds of wild ponies), the natural bridge, etc. Virginia's landscape is truly extraordinary.

As a last weird tidbit that I love about Virginia is Tangier Island. A very small island with a population just in the 700s, many families can trace their lineage there as farmers and oyster harvesters from the late 1700s. Due to the insulated nature of the island and community, the dialect of English there is entirely unique, and scholars believe it to be directly descended from 18th century English.
posted by FirstMateKate at 1:27 PM on November 6, 2018


For anyone interested in seeing the complete list of icons used for each state, people seem to be collecting them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/googlestateicons/
posted by neuracnu at 5:43 PM on November 6, 2018


Depending on the audience, Connecticut is:

- Yale
- Gilmore Girls
- Martha Stewart

But oh my god I love Arizona's cactus-friend! It reminds me of Jayde Fish's Prickly Pear sticker pack on Facebook.
posted by batter_my_heart at 9:35 PM on November 6, 2018


I honestly expected Connecticut to be a pasty kid wearing a white polo and holding a lacrosse stick. But UConn women's basketball would be even better than that.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:54 AM on November 11, 2018


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