Results 61 to 71 of 71
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2016-08-23, 12:41 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2014
- Location
- Greenock, Scotland
- Gender
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
Last edited by Gnomvid; 2016-08-23 at 12:47 AM.
Errare humanum est
Live long and Prosper
May the force be with you
Avatar by linklele
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2016-08-23, 11:29 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
New Netherland is what Colin Woodward calls it in his book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America which is what I was responding to.
I was arguing that the culture of the Upper Midwest is nowadays characterized by a blend of northern European cultures that immigrated in the late 19th, early 20th century which included (amongst them my own great grandparents) Poles and Germans, which were two thirds of my Poles/Germans/Scandinavian formulation. Kielbasa is a Polish dish and Sauerkraut is German, although pickled cabbage is part of a tasty Polish dish called Kapusta.Last edited by Hoosigander; 2016-08-23 at 11:30 AM. Reason: Capitalization
Even the wise cannot see all ends. -J.R.R. Tolkien
Don't destroy it! That alter to Lamashtu, Demon Queen and Mother of Monsters, is historically significant!
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2016-08-24, 08:45 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2014
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
I did say he didn't get it exact. It's a broader narrative. The fact they're part of a different group of immigrants means little, it's a map of sociopolitical culture as much as ethnic cultures. The Upper Midwest has more in common with "Yankeedom" politically than it does with the Midlands.
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2016-08-25, 09:51 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2013
- Gender
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
For those interested in learning about Norway: A Frog in the Fjord
A French lady who moved to Norway and started a blog (in English) about her experiences and observations of Norwegians and Norway in general. For the most part she's spot on, and people complaining about her being wrong just don't want to admit she has a point.
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2016-08-25, 10:21 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- Tail of the Bellcurve
- Gender
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
I live in Iowa. Where I am now (central Iowa) is flat, and has corn. Since the price of corn has fallen a bit the last few years, we also have soybeans again.
But I grew up in the northwest corner of Iowa; in an area known as the Driftless. This is the corner of Iowa, going into Minnesota and Wisconsin that got missed by the glaciers during the last ice age, so there's hills and bluffs, and a much stronger tendency to grow forest than most of the great plains states. It's a genuinely beautiful part of the world, there's not a lot of big, spectacular vistas, but many pleasant and lovely little places tucked away here and there. There aren't really any major cities (or even minor cities), but many of the small towns here have weathered the decline of the family farm and the great rural exodus better than in the rest of the state, and so are fairly vibrant and alive. There's good walking and biking trails, the restaurants are several cuts above what you'd expect from dinky little midwestern towns, and the steep, unfarmable hills means there's lots of trees along the river valleys and the roads are twisty, confusing mess to navigate. My little corner was mostly settled by German and Norwegian immigrants; but since the world wars, the most prominent ethnic group is Norwegian, so there's a thriving folk art community as well.Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman, 1906.
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2016-08-25, 10:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
I don't have any problem with the regions he draws up in the book, and they work as an analysis of regions that tend to vote in certain ways. He does, however, try to connect those regions to particular cultures and I just plain find it odd that even in areas which were highly affected by 19th century immigration he always ties things to 17th century immigrant groups. Besides, more recent immigrants (anything after the 17th century) are critically important to understanding which regions behave in what ways politically. The urban political machines that historically enabled one unnamed political party's electoral dominance of large parts of Woodward's Yankeedom were built on later waves of immigrants. Nor are the waves of northern European immigrants to the Upper Midwest insignificant to the political history of those regions.
Even the wise cannot see all ends. -J.R.R. Tolkien
Don't destroy it! That alter to Lamashtu, Demon Queen and Mother of Monsters, is historically significant!
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2016-08-26, 05:32 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2007
- Location
- Greensboro, NC
- Gender
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
state nationalism is incredibly intense in the SE. We still believe in America, yes, but that the SE is by far the best part of the country, and generally southerners believe that their state is the best part of the SE, and their region of their state is the best part of their state. Part of that does go back to the Civil War (though, without getting political, I think it has more to do with the states rights issues from before the war rather than just still being mad that we lost. We've always been more about our own state than the country as a whole it seems), but I have no idea if it's like that in the rest of the country. I haven't left the SE since I was like...11.
There's no way I could have listed every single region of the US, So I tried to list the major, over arching ones that are used by most people. Also, Appalachia is in the eastern US, no where near the NW, and is generally a part of either the NE (in the case of say, Appalachian Pennsylvania), or the SE (the area I live in, the "uplands" of Virginia, the carolinas, and georgia), and while there is a difference between say appalachian and the respective low country of each state, the appalachian regions have more in common with the low country of their own state than with the appalachian area of a state that is 1000 miles away (for instance, the culture where I live in Upstate SC is MUCH more similar to the culture of say, Charleston, in the low country, than it is in Appalachian Pennsylvania, or even in a place like West Virginia. I'll admit that I could be wrong about Alaska having a distinct culture, but I just figured it wouldn't be like most other places in the US (which culture do you believe it falls into? Pacific NW?), but to the others, native tribes of the 4 corners would be part of the indian/ethnic cultures (fun fact, since after whites, the largest group in the US is like 15% of the population, that makes pretty much every ethnicity a 'minority'), california is split between a form of SW culture (Southern california, along with the places that used to be owned by Mexico) and Pacific NW (Northern california, which tends to be similar to oregon and washington.). The mixed cultures along the border would either be minority cultures (IE, the culture of latinos), or the regional culture (SW culture has massive influence from mexico, duh, because it was part of them. The northwest is gonna be influenced by Canada as a part of its culture. If your from Mexico or Canada and still live just like you did there, then you are part of a minority/ethnic culture - a culture from a people that isn't the 'majority' [at this point, actually a plurality] in America). Texas is half southern, half southwestern, depending on the place. It's not reductionist, its just general, because I wasn't trying to type out a response this long originally. Please try to be less condescending next time though, if you don't mind, especially if you're then going to make ridiculous mistakes yourself.Avatar by Lycunadari
Go Tigers!
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2016-08-26, 06:08 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2006
- Location
- State of Denial
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
I live in Washington State. The pearl of the Pacific Northwest. Specifically, in Olympia, right at the southern tip of the Puget Sound. If you're the outdoorsy-type at all, then Washington has everything you could possible want. From ocean to an 18,000 foot mountain in an hour drive. Ski resorts, thousands of acres of state and national parks, one of the last rainforests in North America, as well as protected waterways for boating. Any type of terrain is available for any type of sport.
Not outdoorsy? Washington is a burgeoning tech capital with Microsoft and Boeing, as well as major entertainment such as Wizards of the Coast within an hour drive of me.
Of course, the trade-off is that the cost of living here is about 7-14% above the national average, and rising. The word is getting out that the weather here isn't as bad as we advertise.
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2016-08-27, 03:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- UK
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
Lydia Seaspray by Oneris!
A Faerie Affair
Homebrew: Sig
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2016-08-27, 03:46 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
- Location
- San Francisco Bay area
- Gender
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
My wife grew up in Seattle (she's a U.W. alum whereas I'm an uneducated Troglodyte!), and she often described it as "depressing", but when I visited Seattle in the winter of 1998 the weather in seemed little different from San Francisco's, and the City seemed like a San Francisco intertwined with Oakland. But how much latter the sunrise was, was very noticible! Despite that I quite liked Seattle, it had some great bookshops!
Portland, Oregon which I only saw from the inside of a Greyhound bus and bus station seemed much more distinct. Portland seemed like an old dense City like San Francisco, but surrounded by miles of forest instead of suburbs.
The only other places I've seen outside of California has been a week in Washington, D.C. and two weeks in Ottawa, and a day in Montreal. Despite being francophone, Montreal seemed the closest to home!
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2016-08-27, 05:09 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2015
- Location
- UK
Re: I'd like to learn about other places!/What's the world like?
From what I've heard, Portland was deliberately laid out in small blocks so that there would be more corner lots - because corner lots fetch higher prices!
Whether that's true or not, people also say that the layout has fostered a unique culture. I'd like to visit someday, for sure.Lydia Seaspray by Oneris!
A Faerie Affair
Homebrew: Sig