What is the best U.S. State?

[LucyDuke]

None of above. Japan should be.

Japan is not a US state and even if it were it would still suck.

You put in Connecticut and left out Maine. Poll no good

Although I voted for California, I am perplexed that the only New England state in the poll is Connecticut. Connecticut. C'mon.

Yeah, you'd think a dude from New York would have a clue about New England!

Unless you have lived for a few years in each state, its going to be really tough to define 'best'.

Easy to name "worst"!

Well, you dont need 'high speed' internet to surf the web.

No, but a place without broadband is going to be a crappy place to live.

Exactly my point. Connecticut has very little to recommend it. All the other New England states, except maybe Rhode Island (and that's an iffy) is better.

I can only think of one way for someone to put CT > RI, and that's the NYC suburbs full of money. CT sucks.

Either New England, New York, Illinois, or California..

New England is six states!!!

 

[scherbchen]

why isn't this thread closed? how is a referendum on what US state is the best more viable than what Austrian state is best, what Australian state is best, what planet is best?

enlighten me, mods.

 

[Theige]

why isn't this thread closed? how is a referendum on what US state is the best more viable than what Austrian state is best, what Australian state is best, what planet is best?

enlighten me, mods.

Cause the USA is #1

 

[illram]

Not sure why people pick California. Oregon and Washington are full of people moving away from there.

Judging solely on natural beauty, California's still got them both beat.

Not to say Oregon and Washington aren't beautiful, but CA's just so damn big and full of cool stuff.

 

[Dachs]

NorCal accents are incredibly stupid though

 

[Bill3000]

why isn't this thread closed? how is a referendum on what US state is the best more viable than what Austrian state is best, what Australian state is best, what planet is best?

enlighten me, mods.

actual discussion?

 

[scherbchen]

actual discussion?

erm....

point those bits out for me if you will because I must have missed them (or we have a different understanding of what "discussion" stands for, well, so do the mods apparently. Connecticut #1! now I have participated and joined the discussion.).

no hurry, going to sleep now

 

[civ_king]

NorCal accents are incredibly stupid though

How so?

 

[CivCube]

Canada. *ducks*

 

[Dachs]

How so?

Like this

 

[civ_king]

What makes it stupider than other accents?

 

[illram]

I don't hear what that webpage is saying at all. Did sounds like dead? Friend like frand? Never heard that before. Yes we do say the word "hella" I will admit that.

Stanford. Pfft. Typical.

I always felt that a northern california accent was pretty bland, run of the mill "American." I.e. generic. Everywhere else in the US I can hear an accent; Northeast, South, Midwest, Minnesota, etc. etc. Here though I don't hear much of an accent at all.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Seeing the poll results makes me think we(New York) should align with Texas and crush California. There can be only one!!

Alternatively, New York, California and Texas all form a conglomerate that lords over all the other states!

 

[dannyshenanigan]

The many times I was in Northern California I never noticed a specific accent beyond the typical American accent that I thought I spoke with; however, many Californians pointed out that I had a Midwestern accent. I couldn't really tell the difference between mine and theirs.

 

[Tani Coyote]

The many times I was in Northern California I never noticed a specific accent beyond the typical American accent that I thought I spoke with; however, many Californians pointed out that I had a Midwestern accent. I couldn't really tell the difference between mine and theirs.

It was the opposite on my part. Nobody thought I was New Yorker because I lacked the accent(then again, I was from Staten Island, the pseudo-borough of NYC).

Culturally there was also a large difference; never mind the fact I finally had to deal with many more Mormons and Hispanics, but nobody believed I was older than anybody else in my grade, even though New Yorkers start school earlier than out here...

In retrospect, why did I ever care what a bunch of kids thought about me anyway? I was there for the grades, not to play popularity contest. I'll save that for any hypothetical election I participate in.

 

[IAM]

To help fix this broken poll I make the case for North Carolina:
Geography: From the highest mountains on the east coast to the wide open beaches we have it all; plus features unlike the Sounds that most states like New York don't have.
Weather: The climate is mild and yet we still get all four seasons and the changing of the leaves.
Science and Tech: Reasearch triangle and the University system, Duke Medical school to name one, are tippytop notch
Cities and sports: We have those too.
Lively personalities: Californias Charles Manson has nothing on us. Eric Rudolf played hide and seek with thousands of fed gov agents for years in the mountains.

 

[GenMarshall]

MASSACHUSETTS #1!!11!!11

n

Taxacussets?!

No thank you

 

[Bill3000]

I don't hear what that webpage is saying at all. Did sounds like dead? Friend like frand? Never heard that before. Yes we do say the word "hella" I will admit that.

You most likely don't notice it. Sound changes tend to be unnoticed by the general population; methods of sound change, such as imitation of peers, tend to happen subconsciously. It's also currently in the middle of the shift (none of these changes existed in the 1950s) so not everyone will have it yet. The Western American dialect is diverging.

In addition, the reason why you can't notice the shift is because all of the vowels remain distinguishable.

I always felt that a northern california accent was pretty bland, run of the mill "American." I.e. generic. Everywhere else in the US I can hear an accent; Northeast, South, Midwest, Minnesota, etc. etc. Here though I don't hear much of an accent at all.

Everyone thinks about that about their native dialect, but the fact that you think that Midwest is a different non-bland accent is notable, as it is the basis behind General American, not Californian or Western. The cot-caught merge, for example, is nonstandard, although complete in Californian, although it is widespread.

 

[downtown]

Yeah, I used to live in NorCal, and the only accent I ever heard was the repeated use of the word "hella".

 

[Cutlass]

I can only think of one way for someone to put CT > RI, and that's the NYC suburbs full of money. CT sucks.

You read me not as I intended. I was saying that CT is the worst of New England, and the others are better, except that RI might be the worst of the other 5. After all, you have the RI state government.