I'm getting really tired of the media acting as though people from the Midwest are dull

[1gobluedem]

Even my own network, NPR, today was dumbfounded that a company in Ohio was able to find creative people locally instead of "going to the coast."

Sigh.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Oh yeah, I've lived on both coasts and am now back in Minnesota

The West Coast wasn't so bad, because a lot of people there are FROM the Midwest, but the East Coast was ridiculous. When I was in grad school, I knew people who declared that they could never take a job west of the Alleghenies, unless it was at Berkeley or Stanford. I don't know what they thought the Midwest was like--all farms? all Rustbelt? all log cabins and sod houses?

If you haven't seen the famous New Yorker magazine cover, here it is:




It is not so far from the truth. I once (emphasis on "once") went out with a New Yorker who asked me in all seriousness if Minnesota had a seacoast. After I got over my astonishment, I mumbled something about, "Not in this geological era."

[madinmaryland]

3. Funny you mention that. Before I took my wife to visit my folks in Ohio,

she had never been further west that Syracuse, New York!

And she was from Dutchess County, NY!

:rofl:

[fizzgig]

6. that cover sums up a conversation my dad and i had not long ago

we were talking about how it seems to be normal for people from new york to only take vacations along the sea board and have never been further west than pennsylvania. if my dad hadn't moved here to colorado, i have a feeling it would remain true for his parents and brothers and i know it's true for all of my cousins.

the west is a scary place, dontcha know. i swear some people think we all ride horses down dusty main streets, gun fights break out at random and we have no modern amenities :rofl:

[DarkTirade]

8. ... wait, you're saying that you DON'T do that sort of thing?

[fizzgig]

9. you east coast elitists are all the same

we have indoor plumbing AND electricity, thank you very much. :eyes:

now, the buffalo herds and grizzly bears roaming the streets...that's a completely different story :P

[DarkTirade]

13. Yes, I've herd of buffalo.

Just 'cause I'm not surrounded by them it doesn't mean I don't know about 'em. Geez. :P

[fizzgig]

15. we have to just grin and bear it with the grizzlies

:P

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Wow, this sounds like the way we Minnesota teenagers used to tease one of our teachers

who was from North Dakota.

Even Midwesterners want someone to look down on. :-)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. The following took place about fifty years ago, but my father

who was a Lutheran pastor, attended a national pastors' convention in Chicago, and as the conference drew to a close, there was discussion of where to hold the next meeting. The delegation from Seattle volunteered to host the next conference, and one of the East Coast delegates asked, "But does Seattle have the facilities to host a large convention like this one?" (It was all of three hundred people.)

[fizzgig]

19. sounds about right

:rofl:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

23. You are SO right,

and that cover was perfect.

I battle constantly with my agent and publisher/editor about stuff so basic and so normal, I get discouraged. Fortunately, I really love those women, but, boy, native New Yorkers without a clue about how the rest of the lives can be infuriating.

It's always amazing to me to realize how terribly provincial and narrow some Manhattanites can be. I once had an editor, in turning down a novel I'd written (HarperCollins ended up publishing it), write that "Lawyers don't talk like this." The language was salty, the kind of language you hear every day in every town in the world, but this woman didn't believe that a lawyer would utter a line like, "Exactly whose dick are you pissing through today, Your Honor?" (It was in chambers, and the characters were old friends.)

If they had a clue about the rest of this great country, they'd faint. They surely couldn't handle life outside of their safe little "We're The Most Sophisticated City In The World" world, especially when they found out they're wrong.

[Arugula Latte]

2. Huh? What? Did someone from the flyover say something?

I thought I heard a faint buzzing sound ...

;) :P

[LaraMN]

4. Oh, we're painfully droll and unimaginative.

:P

[PVnRT]

5. Just remember: when Antarctica melts, we'll be fine

The East and West Coasters? Not so much.

Who's laughing now, hosers?

[Aristus]

7. Not me. Puyallup, Washington is 56 feet above sea level. I'll be fine.

B-)

[kentauros]

24. Unless the seas rise the 20m predicted

20m = 65.62'

[blue_onyx]

10. A lot of creative come from the midwest

Many do move to the coasts for opportunities in areas like acting or music but they come from other locations. Two of the biggest pop stars, for example, came from the Midwest: Michael Jackson (Indiana) and Madonna (Michigan). Michigan was once a huge part of the music industry with Motown. The reason people think LA and NYC are the only places creative people come from is because that's where many of the industries that attract creative people are located there...so there are larger concentrations of creative people in these places. I am also annoyed by the assumption that people from the Midwest are boring.

[coyotespaw]

25. Don't forget about...

Mellencamp, (whatever permutation of his name he's using these days) born in Indiana...
Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour) born in Iowa
and of course, Bob Dylan who was born in the same town I was born in; Hibbing Minnesota.

[raccoon]

33. did you or your parents know him? nt

[JVS]

11. It's because we've been sold out. Garrison Keillor= minstrel show treatment of Midwesterners

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. I don't know--the Eastern attitudes toward the Midwest predate Keillor

That incident with the guy who thought Minnesota might have a seacoast took place in 1972.

[mcctatas]

12. We are anything but dull!

Why, my state alone has given the world the following:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dGg_F1ZFPwI/SJ-j-yJAsEI/AAAAAAAAAXE/3IGlsCaLs6U/s400/ed+gein.jpg

ed gein, a truly creative artisan!



Jeffrey Dahmer, an innovator in the culinary world!



and Bambi Bambeneck who single handedly spurred a cottage industry in folk songs such as the iconic 'Run Bambi Run', not to mention a Lifetime made for TV movie!


*tongue planted firmly in cheek as I realize there are a brazillion truly creative folks here in fly-over country :hi:

[PaddyBlueEyes]

20. ya know Bambi had it goin on...

:evilgrin:

[mcctatas]

21. Typical man

:eyes:

[buzzycrumbhunger]

14. I long ago quit admitting I grew up in IA

Got sick of people giving me a blank look and saying ignorant crap like. . . That's where pigs come from, right? Um. . . yeah, I suppose. I've never lived with one, however. Never lived on a farm at all, in fact.

Having lived in FL for over 20 years, I have to admit I miss a lot of that Midwestern sensibility. If not for the arctic winters, I would even consider moving back. Preferably before my home on the coast is under water and I can still get my money out of it. :eyes:

[kwassa]

18. I am from the Midwest, and I am dull.

But I've taken my dullness to both coasts, and quite frankly, nothing could induce me to ever live in the Midwest again.

Many leave and never come back, due in no small part to the terrible economic outlook in the region.

There is no real creative outlet in the middle of the country, either. The marketplaces for creative activities, with a few exceptions, are on the east and west coasts, so people have to move who are engaged in these areas.

[Lucian]

26. I live in the Midwest and there are more dull people here than anywhere else.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

27. Flyover states syndrome?

:)

It's a chronic perception here on the flanks of the nation, I must say....ocean apparently = talent.

[1gobluedem]

31. Maybe you can take the lead in changing that

Have you been to the Midwest?

[TZ]

28. Hey now not all of us are like that!

I've lived in Maryland for 30+ years but I have oodles of relatives in both Ohio ( where I was from
originally) and Colorado both of whom I've visited multiple times.
Plus when I needed to go see a medical specialist I didn't go to NYC or Baltimore (Johns Hopkins) both of which I could have done..I went to Minnesota! :)

[raccoon]

29. You think you've got it bad. Lots of times the media (and others) act as though all people from the

South are stupid, inbred racists.

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. Yeah. They're not dull, they're provincial and incurious.

Big difference.

:P

(Says Rabrrrrrr, a proud-to-be-of-midwestern-farmer-stock type person)

[LeftinOH]

32. Being from Ohio- I've met people 'from the coasts' who can't distinguish Ohio/Iowa/Idaho

from each other. And, FWIW, for all the genuine charms of SoCal- there seems to be a disproportionately high number of *really* stupid people in that area.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

34. LMAO--it's not just the coasts

I had the misfortune of living in MO for a year and those idiots couldn't wrap themselves around the concept of IA as a state. They were convinced that I was a witch from Ireland because of my "funny accent" and the fact I would not join their freakish Baptist ways. We're not talking the boonies here, but the entire area from St. Joe to KC. Iowa is the very next freakin' state to their north and it's like they'd never heard of it. WTF?