You can leave Washington for a while and still find yourself doing things the Washington way. What feels natural back home can earn you a curious look elsewhere in the U.S. These are the everyday habits that only make sense to Washingtonians. 1. Skipping the Umbrella Out of habit, Washingtonians walk through a rainy afternoon…
Being from Delaware can turn an ordinary introduction into a question-and-answer session you didn’t volunteer for. Someone hears where you live, and suddenly you’re explaining your home state… again. These are the questions Delawareans are tired of being asked. 1. The Population Doubt People who ask this question treat Delaware like a rest stop between…
Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says there were 13 unprovoked alligator bites statewide in 2025. Two of them were fatal. This is what the state recommends to do if you encounter any of the following animals in Florida. Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Wildlife rules and penalties are subject to change,…
Southern Nevada sees more than 80% of its possible sunshine in a typical year, according to climate data from the Desert Research Institute. That much sun means shoppers buy a lot of sunscreen, and brands print many promises on the bottles. Not all of them hold up. These are the sunscreen label claims Nevadans shouldn’t…
Try standing at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park during a rainstorm. The same cloudburst can end up in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, or Hudson Bay, depending on where each drop lands. The Divide splits more than rainwater. These are the Montana habits that place someone east or west of the Divide….
Colorado crossed six million residents in 2025. But for the first time in years, more people left for other states than moved in from them, according to state demographers. People still move in, though. Whether you land in Denver for a job or a mountain town for the snow, you run into the same surprises…
You don’t expect to need a translation when someone tells you where they’re from in Maine. Then they use a nickname, and you’re left trying to match it to a town you’ve actually heard of. These are the Maine town nicknames nobody from out of state understands. 1. Millinocket Millinocket goes by “the Magic City”…
Michigan couples now spend an average of over $30,000 on a wedding, according to The Wedding Report, a wedding industry research firm. That number only covers the couple. Bridesmaids charge flights to credit cards, and guests fly across the country just to watch two people get married. These are the wedding habits Michiganders say have…
Virginia Tech’s Southwest Virginia Language Project spent this year studying how Virginians say one word—Appalachia—using recordings a podcast called Appodlachia collected from listeners across 13 states. The split follows the mountains. These are the things Virginians say that place them east or west of the Blue Ridge. 1. Poke In Virginia’s westernmost counties, beyond the…
A trivia app flashes “Name Missouri’s capital,” and the easy guess for out-of-staters is St. Louis. That guess is wrong. These are the things out-of-staters get wrong about Missouri. 1. Kansas City’s Missouri Address Kansas City carries the name of a different state, and that alone convinces many out-of-staters it must sit inside Kansas. It…
