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Tuesday Trivia

Fun Time Open Thread: Fun with States

Did you know that every state in the US has a nickname? Some of them are well known – like my home state of Georgia, the Peach State – but some are less obvious. How many of the following do you know?

  1. The Yellowhammer State?
  2. The Last Frontier?
  3. The First State?
  4. The Constitution State?
  5. The Gem State?
  6. The North Star State?
  7. The Land of Enchantment?
  8. The Peace Garden State?
  9. The Buckeye State?
  10. The Beaver State?
  11. The Badger State?
  12. The Keystone State?

For those of you who live outside the US, do you have anything similar to state nicknames where you live? If you don’t, what would you call your part of the world? Better yet – what would you call your home, if we still named our houses in lieu of numerical addresses?

By [E]SaraB

Glass artisan by day, blogger by night (and sometimes vice versa). SaraB has three kids, three pets, one husband and a bizarre sense of humor. Her glass pendants can be found at www.etsy.com/shop/AngryOwlStudio if you're interested in checking it out.

30 replies on “Fun Time Open Thread: Fun with States”

Ok, exercise and muscle pain questions. I go to a circuit training class every week, and out of everything we do I find the leg stuff easiest (squats, lunges, jogging, skipping) and the abs stuff by far the hardest (crunches, bicycle crunches, planks, leg raises etc.). Yet the next day my legs are always sore and my abs never are. What’s that about? Science me up!

Ireland has some: like Wicklow is the Garden County; Cork is the Rebel County; Clare the Banner County, etc. There’s a list here, though I have to say as a Dubliner I haven’t heard most of these…

I discovered this morning I have a bruise on my thigh that is cross-hatched – as in, stripy in two different directions. I blame cycling, but it’s entertaining me a lot.

Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and Utrecht are ‘Randstad’, but that’s not a very exciting nick. Hmmm ..I think we have nick names for the people living in cities than for the states they live in ..

Oh, and I’m in Sodom&Gomorrah, of course. As someone lovely pointed it out to me in another community.

My corner of the Great White North is having a mini heat wave (humidex of +40 tomorrow!  Ugh) so what does my belly decide it has a hankering for that must be satisfied IMMEDIATELY?  Potato cakes.  Which require a 450 degree oven to cook for 20 minutes.  At midnight.  In 30+ degree humidex.

Why, belly, why?!

ooh ooh ohh!  #5 The Gem State is IDAHO!

Fun fact – when the state of Idaho was named, it was said that the word Idaho was “an Indian word” for ‘Gem of the Mountains’.  No one at the time thought to check and see what Native American language used this word or if it actually meant ‘Gem of the Mountains’ – – it just sounded perty so they went with it.  As it happens, there is no Native American tribal language that uses a word that sounds anything like Idaho, let alone something that translates as ‘Gem of the Mountains’ – THAT I AM AWARE OF – I would love to be proven wrong on this one.  Although Idaho is one of the only places (and possibly THE only place) where you can find the exquisite star garnet, we are not known for gems per se.  We are known for potatoes, huge expanses of uninhabited land, the deepest natural gorge in North America, Senators who are arrested for soliciting sex in airport bathrooms, white supremacists, and conspiracy theorists.  Other than that, it’s a great place to call home.

I only know a couple of these, but it reminds me of one of the dumber things I’ve seen this week. Some dude in Ohio apparently found out that the Buckeye tree is “bisexual” and wants it removed as the state tree/nickname. You really can’t make this shit up. I apologize in advance for linking to Deadspin, but they broke the story. Head, meet desk.

The only ones I’m reasonably sure of are: 2 is Alaska, 9 is Ohio, 10 is Maine.

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