Two people slide into a booth at the Cracker Barrel off Exit 62 in Tifton at 6:20 on a Tuesday and order the same dinners they always order. They missed the cheaper version by twenty minutes. These are the Cracker Barrel ordering mistakes that cost Georgia diners every time. 1. Joining After You Order Joining…
Florida’s road signs have said “Beachline” along State Road 528 since July 2005. Hardly anyone driving to the beach that summer changed a word. Two decades later, “take the Bee Line” still comes out of older people’s mouths without a pause, along with a stack of other sentences that stopped being accurate years ago. These…
Some of the most stubborn plants in a North Carolina yard arrived in a nursery pot, with a tag and a price on them. Regardless of their origin, N.C. Cooperative Extension publishes control instructions for several plant species. Homeowners with yards need to be aware of them. These are the plants North Carolinians regret ever…
A visitor walks into Russ & Daughters on Houston Street and takes her place behind six people at the counter. Four of them are holding little paper tickets. She isn’t, so the next three customers through the door will order before she does. These are the unwritten New York City bagel shop rules tourists break…
A dad hands his six-year-old his phone at bedtime and gets thirty minutes of peace out of the deal. Not long after lights out, a stranger left a bag of food on the porch. Then another stranger did. These are the things kids accidentally order the second a parent hands over the phone. Take this…
Think a lifetime of swimming in Florida’s springs makes you hard to fool? We beg to differ. What follows is a two truths and a lie game about the springs Floridians grew up jumping into. Each round hands you three statements, two of them true and one of them a lie. You tap the fake….
Your first set of directions in Missouri ends with a letter. Take Z to MM, then watch for the outer road. The person telling you that assumes you already know what a letter on a road sign means. These are the things Missourians do that confuse everyone who moves there. 1. Asking Where You Went…
A Memphis rib joint hands you a rack with no sauce on it. You notice the same thing happens to locals at the next table over, and they never ask for a bottle. That’s on purpose. Dry ribs are one of many foods Tennesseans grew up on that confuse everyone else. 1. Meat and Three…
Leaving California looks great on a spreadsheet. You sign a smaller mortgage, the moving truck pulls out of the driveway, and the new garage fits two cars. Then it’s February, and the strawberries in the produce aisle taste like water. These are the things Californians miss most after they leave the Golden State. 1. Tacos…
A brother-in-law from Buffalo drops his bag in the driveway, looks over the yard, and asks which tree is the orange tree. He’s just getting started. The postcard version of Florida is decades out of date, and the relatives who fly down every summer haven’t updated their questions. These are the questions Floridians brace for…
