[Sigia-l] is midwest, is not midwest

[Lucie Melahn]

By the way, your New England friends were correct about New England. It's 
the only region in America that has a precise, unequivocal, official 
definition. It consists of six states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut. That's it, end of discussion. If 
someone suggests New York is part of New England, that's laughable, because 
it's simply not. You might as well say Hawaii is part of the mainland US.

There's a great book about the topic of cultural regions in North America, 
which was sadly overlooked when it came out. It's called "THe Nine Nations 
of North America" by Joel Garreau. In it, he postulates that North America, 
including Mexico, Canada, and the Carribean islands, can be divided into 
(surprise!) nine regions, each with its own distinct culture. If you can 
get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it. You could argue endlessly 
about the borders Garreau draws, but I think his thesis is sound.
here's the Amazon entry:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380578859/103-8196049-6835020

Lucie

At 08:37 PM 4/19/2002 -0500, Louise wrote:
>David,
>
>I designate New England as any place where they say 'soder' for pop. When 
>I was in undergrad school in VT (lo, these many years) I used to have 
>arguments with New Englanders who claimed that Illinois was not the 
>midwest. They said that Colorado was the midwest. As far as they were 
>concerned, New England was New England, and everything east of the 
>Mississippi was east. (I can't remember where south started.) Also, I 
>think New York was in a special category of its own.
>
>Geography, like everything else, apparently resides in personal mental 
>schemas.