state by state speak your mind about...massachusetts

[SwampG8r]

nice place maligned because of its pay what you get mentality as taxachusetts
one of the cradles of our republic
i may be mistaken but i think maine and vermont were cut from a larger massachusetts
great chowder and other seafood
between the history and the food massachusetts is a good visit spot

[jberryhill]

1. 02134!

[Arugula Latte]

2. I love Massachusetts.

I lived there for a summer (Cambridge). Great town.
Boston? Lots to do there.
Lots of beautiful little towns.
Nice beaches.
I have an all-around good feeling towards that state.

[yewberry]

3. I'm a Masshole.

Born & raised, far away now.

Thing about Massachusetts that most people don't get unless you know it... taxachusetts WORKS.

Lower rates of divorce, teen pregnancy, illiteracy, etc. than most. MA funds what's important, and it shows.
At least, that was the case back when I lived there.

[limpyhobbler]

4. I hear they have a great health care plan.

Tons of good music from Massachusetts


Amanda Palmer

J Mascis

I used to live there.

Rents are very high.

People like baseball a lot in Massachusetts.

In Salem Mass. all the college kids go apeshit on Halloween.


And in case there was ever any doubt, Satan's Kingdom is in fact located in Massachusetts, right near where MA, VT and NH all come together:

http://g.co/maps/p5yn4

[hfojvt]

5. yeah, you are mistaken

Vermont was cut from New York by New Hampshire land speculators. In fact, the first Congress passed a law outlawing Vermont, which was threatening to split from the US and join Canada. Congress passed it, but President Washington refused to enforce it. He basically did not want to take on the Green Mountain Boys on their home turf.

While I have been to Maine, and thus through both Vermont and New Hampshire. I have never been to Massachusetts.

I think of it as a cool place, historically, but currently far, far too packed with people to be enjoyable to this rural midwest hick. I like to be able to drive down a road and see something like 5 cars every ten minutes. Otherwise I am spitting fire about all the bleepity bleep traffic.

[1gobluedem]

11. You can find that in western Mass

And in the Berkshires. Easily.

[pipi_k]

14. Yep, even the "main road"

a mile away from my house only has very limited traffic.

and my road...dirt...we don't see a car more than once every 15 to 20 minutes, or sometimes less.

And in town, Route 20, which used to be somewhat of a major thoroughfare before the turnpike, isn't that busy. Usually the only cars using it are locals, not really through traffic, since it's quicker to get west on the turnpike that passes by us but doesn't have any exits within 20 miles.

That's why this area is called "The Hidden Hills".

[hfojvt]

18. I was not thinking of dirt roads

I don't even think of those as roads. That's more like off-roading.

I see a route 20 near Pittsfield, a city of 42.000 (to me, that is a fairly large city). And Berkshire County has 129,000 "locals" in 946 square miles.

Now contrast that with the county where I grew up. Beadle County, SD. 1,265 square miles and 19,000 people. Right next to Hand County, with 1,440 square miles and 3,431 people, and Spink County with 1,510 square miles and 6,400 people. Compare that to Franklin County with a mere 725 square miles and a whopping 71,000 (!!!) people.

You can tell me that western Mass is not packed with people, but I don't believe it.

Huron, SD btw with 15,000 people, was the 4th largest city in the state when I grew up. (it's now about 8th, or lower).

[1gobluedem]

22. Everything is relative

Compared to southeast Michigan I found western Mass to be pretty bucolic.

[hfojvt]

23. oh lord, Michigan.

I managed to avoid Detroit, but that highway was still solid cars almost all the way to Grayling.

Funny story about Grayling. My older sister dated a guy named Grayling. A guy who wanted to marry her, actually. On one trip, we stopped in Grayling so she could mail him a letter from the town that shared his name.

[Ohio Joe]

6. I loved living in MA

The roads sucked but man was the seafood awesome.

[pipi_k]

8. Can't argue with you there...

the roads really do suck.

And they suck the most in Holyoke. Absolutely horrendous!

[pipi_k]

7. Yay! My state finally!!!

Born and raised here. I love it.

My home town was Springfield, and now I live out by the Berkshires, which, by and large, are mostly forgotten in the travel brochures. Or maybe get a small mention after all the hoopla over the Cape and Boston.

We have, of course, the Berkshire Mountains (really hills) with lovely scenery, especially in mid spring and mid autumn. Jacobs ladder trail. The Norman Rockwell Museum. Skiing. Camping. Lovely little rural towns with history every bit as rich as what's in the eastern part of the state. I live in a town called "The Gem of the Valley", and it's called that for a reason.

We're off the beaten track (no major highway exits) but close enough to the turnpike so that we're not totally isolated.

Out east, there's Plymouth Rock...Salem...Old Ironsides...Bunker Hill...and mid-state there's Sturbridge Village. Like I said, we're loaded with history and lots of fun things to do.

Standard of living...pretty decent, I would say.

I'm so happy to be a New Englander.

PS...clam chowdah is always white here. "Manhattan" clam chowder is a poor second. Oh, and I am making my favorite New England meal for dinner tonight...boiled dinner.

OK now I'm done talking up my state

[1gobluedem]

9. Beautiful place

I love the Berkshires, I love the coast, I love Boston. Was a little disappointed in my first visit to the Cape but that won't stop me from going again.

The Old North End in Boston is one my favorite places. The first time I visited, they were having one of their summer weekend street festivals celebrating some saint. What I loved is that it wasn't touristy, it was for the locals. Women selling baked goods in front of the church where Rose Kennedy was baptized. An older couple dancing to Sinatra in the street. Whole families that you can just tell come back especially for this festival. Carnival games and cheesy souvenirs. It was magical.

And the restaurants! Love Italian, love the Old North End.

[Marrah_G]

10. I love my state

I love New England.

[Major Hogwash]

12. Boston!!

And the Boston Bruins!!
And then some!!

I really miss Senator Ted Kennedy.
Really, really bad.

I love Senator Kerry, but I really miss Senator Kennedy.

[pipi_k]

13. Two things I think of when

I see "Boston" on its own...

The band, Boston (one of my favorites)

and the song, "Dirty Water" by the Standells...

Quite possibly could be the "Mass Hole" state anthem...

[Major Hogwash]

20. They were a good group when they first started.

I used to listen to "Working Man" all the time.

I always think of Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson playing on that famous parquet basketball court for the Celtics.
"Mr. Inside" and "Mr. Outside", but that was quite awhile ago.
I used to practice dribbling a basketball like Bob Cousy when I was a kid.

[hifiguy]

15. I lived in Cambridge for three years when I was in law school

and loved it. Best place in the world to be a student as everything I could ever want was within walking distance - cheap (then) good pizza & grinders, bookstores, several very good Chinese restaurants, Nick's Beef & Beer House, comic shop, Harvard Square and the Coop, friendly neighborhood grocery and liquor stores and the peerless Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage .

You could get anywhere you would ever need to go on the T. The sense of being where history took place was very cool. To this day one of my favorite memories in life was walking through Harvard yard on a brisk Friday evening in the autumn with REM's "Fables of the Reconstruction" playing on my Walkman. I could feel the (in American terms) age and sense of place - wonderful. I became a basketball fan watching the Bird/McHale/Parish/DJ/Ainge Celtics run to a title. Ate my first clam chowdah and fell in love with it. Even the law school cafeteria made great chowdah.

I loved everything about it with one exception: Bostonians in cars are the most aggressive and viciously crazy jackasses on earth. And that included the cabbies, who would rocket down the wrong side of the street racing through Somerville to get you to the airport. Scary as hell.

Went back years later to visit a law school friend who lived out in Sharon, which was beautiful. It looked like something out of a Currier & Ives print and it was only a half-hour train ride from the city.

All in all, this Minnesota boy adored it and I would love to go back again.

[MineralMan]

16. Cape Cod Girls Ain't Got No Combs.

Haul away! Haul away!
Comb their hair with codfish bones.
And we're bound away for Australia!

This is what I know about MA.

Well, I also know that the Union Oyster House is Boston's oldest restaurant. I had a menu from it dating back to the 1950s, that was in a travel journal of a kid I found at an estate sale. Last time I was in Boston, I swopped that menu for dinner for four there, and paid only the prices in the old menu. A fair dinkum trade, I believe, to continue the reference to Australia in the song.

[WilliamPitt]

17. Massachusetts is 26th out of 50 when it comes to the tax burden

...and we are not as liberal as people think. See: Scott Brown in Teddy's seat, and sixteen years of Republican governors before Deval Patrick.

Stereotypes are fun to puncture.

Oh, P.S...

Patriots
Patriots
Red Sox
Patriots
Red Sox
Celtics
Bruins

...seven championships in all four sports in ten years.

[flamingdem]

19. Nantucket

is a universe unto itself.

A bit elite but very beautiful.

[Fla Dem]

21. Now live in Floriduh, but always a Massachusettite and Bostonian

Along with everything already listed, some of my favorite things I'd like to add:

Fenway Park
Boston Common
Boston Symphony and Boston Pops
Boston Pops concerts on the Esplanade
Rockport and Gloucester
Charles River
Boston accents

Fall foliage and Spring flowers blooming.

My herritage actually goes back to the early settlers in Salem. Ancestors include Mary Towne Esty and Rebecca Towne Nourse. They were sisters who were hung after being convicted of being witches in 1692. (Subjects of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible)

I vacationed in the Berkshires 2 years ago, and on "The Cape" last year. Both times after I came home I was so homesick for New England.

On the minus side, just didn't like the brutal winters, although they have been milder of late, traffic congestion around Boston, and gee, I cant think of anything else as a negative. Oh yes, Scott Brown.