What is the best U.S. State?

[MobBoss]

Louisiana, easily.

Ever been there?

To put it bluntly, there is a good reason why a lot of people who left because of Hurricane Katrina never came back.

Just sayin.

 

[Bill3000]

As for accents, I never really noticed an accent either, however I have heard a lot of griping from out-of staters who have had problems, for example, when a Californian asks them for a pen, which they mishear as pin.

The pen-pin merge is the death of literacy.

 

[downtown]

Ever been there?

To put it bluntly, there is a good reason why a lot of people who left because of Hurricane Katrina never came back.

Just sayin.

I think New Orleans is close to 80% of its pre-storm population now...and outside of Houston, the New Orleans diaspora ended up in other cities in Louisiana (like Baton Rouge). The ones who haven't come back were (mostly) the absolute poorest residents.

I freely admit that Louisiana is a crappy state, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than Arkansas! Northern LA has most of the same outdoorsy stuff that you can get in Arkansas, but Louisiana has two interesting cities and some of the best music and food in the country. I've been to Bentonville, Fayetteville and Little Rock...they aren't even Baton Rouge, let alone New Orleans.

 

[MobBoss]

I think New Orleans is close to 80% of its pre-storm population now...and outside of Houston, the New Orleans diaspora ended up in other cities in Louisiana (like Baton Rouge). The ones who haven't come back were (mostly) the absolute poorest residents.

I freely admit that Louisiana is a crappy state, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than Arkansas! Northern LA has most of the same outdoorsy stuff that you can get in Arkansas, but Louisiana has two interesting cities and some of the best music and food in the country. I've been to Bentonville, Fayetteville and Little Rock...they aren't even Baton Rouge, let alone New Orleans.

Louisiana pros:
Mardi Gras. NO is a fun place to visit. Nice party town.
Lots of outdoorsy stuff to do.
Lots of specific culture to experience.

Louisiana cons:
More heat, more humidity. What the hell is snow?
More bugs, critters, and icky things willing to take a chunk out of you.
More crime, more corruption.
Not to mention the occasional hurricane.

Even less broadband than Arkansas.

Sure, NO has great culture....but its also a friggin dirty, smelly hole with some of the worst crime (highest murder rate anyone?) and corruption in the nation.. Its a place to visit...not live there.

One of the cool things about Arkansas is its close enough to places like NO to go visit...and then come on home.

 

[civ_king]

Your wiki makes no mention of Nevada. You may want to read it a bit closer.

It is a well-known novelty dish in parts of the American West and the Canadian Prairies where cattle ranching is prevalent and castration of young animals is common ("prairie oysters" is the preferred name in Canada, where they may be served in a demi-glace, not deep-fried).[2] In Oklahoma and North Texas, they are sometimes called calf fries but only if taken from very young bulls.

your right, my bad

 

[bigdog5994]

Louisiana pros:
Mardi Gras. NO is a fun place to visit. Nice party town.
Lots of outdoorsy stuff to do.
Lots of specific culture to experience.

Louisiana cons:
More heat, more humidity. What the hell is snow?
More bugs, critters, and icky things willing to take a chunk out of you.
More crime, more corruption.
Not to mention the occasional hurricane.

Even less broadband than Arkansas.

Sure, NO has great culture....but its also a friggin dirty, smelly hole with some of the worst crime (highest murder rate anyone?) and corruption in the nation.. Its a place to visit...not live there.

One of the cool things about Arkansas is its close enough to places like NO to go visit...and then come on home.

how could you not mention the food??? the food alone puts it way over Arkansas

 

[bhsup]

One of the cool things about Arkansas is its close enough to places like NO to go visit...and then come on home.

Eureka Springs is a GREAT little weekend getaway. Peaceful, relaxing, beautiful scenery.

 

[MobBoss]

how could you not mention the food??? the food alone puts it way over Arkansas

I count food as part of the culture.

But Arkansas has great food too. I miss homemade fried catfish w/hushpuppies terribly. And to this day the best barbecue I have ever eaten was at a little place in Fayetteville called 'Sho-Nuff BBQ'. Still havent found better in all my travels.

 

[Mad Man]

Louisiana pros:
Mardi Gras. NO is a fun place to visit. Nice party town.
Lots of outdoorsy stuff to do.
Lots of specific culture to experience.

Louisiana cons:
More heat, more humidity. What the hell is snow?
More bugs, critters, and icky things willing to take a chunk out of you.
More crime, more corruption.
Not to mention the occasional hurricane.

Even less broadband than Arkansas.

Sure, NO has great culture....but its also a friggin dirty, smelly hole with some of the worst crime (highest murder rate anyone?) and corruption in the nation.. Its a place to visit...not live there.

One of the cool things about Arkansas is its close enough to places like NO to go visit...and then come on home.

the fact that they even border Arkansas is reason enough for it to not be the best state, but to give credit where credits due, they dd try to detach them selves using Katrina but alas it didn't work.

 

[Disgustipated]

my state is the best because I say so. Although liberal Californians came in, took over our goverment and ran up the size of our state goverment.

Luckily we still have a balanced budget requirement. So we aren't in dip **** like California. That's why we are still the best.

 

[Oerdin]

It was California before Reaganomics got to it...

Yep. Before Reagan California had the best education system, the best freeway system, the best public parks system... Basically the best of everything.

 

[Glassfan]

I count food as part of the culture.
But Arkansas has great food too.

In the old days, when I was stationed at NAS Memphis, we used to cross the border into West Memphis to buy Coors beer and smuggle it back into Tennessee. It appeared to be the only thing Arkansas was good for. Now I can buy Coors anywhere and Arkansas drops down to #46.

 

[civ_king]

Yep. Before Reagan California had the best education system, the best freeway system, the best public parks system... Basically the best of everything.

Most people would take this as sarcasm, but it is indeed true!

 

[Glassfan]

An alternate opinion was that before Jerry Brown, California was pretty good. Now it appears that "Other" is the winning state. I understand it borders Maine, Florida, Texas and Quebec.

 

[ParkCungHee]

It is home to America's favorite family.

 

[illram]

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.



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.

My concept of generic American is probably not "linguistically" scientific, I guess it comes more from movies and TV. Which I guess would be biased towards Californian. When I referred to Midwest I was also speaking about that "Minnesotan," accent, that's my geography-designation-fail I guess.

Although normally I'd agree with you regarding accent bias, I actually have a very slight MA accent. I've lived in a bunch of different places with different accents (Massachusetts and London) and still, whenever I returned to CA whether it was for living or for visiting, I always thought the accent was very neutral American or "generic". Before College I had actually only lived in California for about 2 or 3 years off and on, and had lived in MA. and London for a total of about 11-12 years straight. When I got to CA around 1999--with a very faint MA accent that I have to this day-- I noticed the accent was bland American-generic.

Definitely still do not hear the things that site was talking about, and I have a good ear for this stuff.

 

[Karalysia]

The best state is Texas or any part of New England. They know their roots.

 

[bhsup]

They know their roots.

That was a good miniseries. Roots II kinda sucked though.

 

[Earthling]

Well, it's not Indiana.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

It angers me that The Greatest State in the Union, Wisconsin, is not on that list. Us Wisconsinites take particular pride in our state. Especially after 7 or 8 beers, at that point I will gladly pick a fight with some one just because they aren't from Wisconsin, especially those damn people from illinois. We should give the entire state to a third world country, and then declare war on it just to have a valid reason to burn it to the ground.

Wisconsin is simply the best, hands down. We could beat down all other states, and still be home in time for a dinner of brats, beer, potatoes, and lard.

I'll drink a beer to that! I'm glad somebody else thinks it's Wisconsin! I'm from there as well, and second your statements regarding pride in our state!