California runs more restaurants than any other state, 88,649 of them by the National Restaurant Association’s count. Almost none of them go national. These are the restaurant chains Californians assume exist all over the country. 1. Original Tommy’s Original Tommy’s has fed Los Angeles since 1946, when Tom Koulax opened a walk-up stand at Beverly…
Kentucky’s state income tax fell to 3.5% this January under House Bill 1. Tennessee never had an income tax to cut. The two states have shared a border for more than two centuries, and neither has ever conceded a point to the other. These are the Tennessee-Kentucky rivalries that refuse to cool down. 1. Men’s…
Pinder is South Carolina’s word for a peanut, from a Bantu root, while goober, the nickname heard elsewhere in the South, traces to a different Bantu word. Two names, two separate paths into English. These are the foods South Carolinians call something different from other Americans. 1. Frogmore Stew Frogmore Stew takes South Carolina’s name…
A Virginia family that prepays $10,000 on a guaranteed-price funeral contract has $9,000 of it placed in trust. State law doesn’t require the other thousand to sit anywhere. These are the things Virginia funeral directors wish families knew before they needed them. Note: This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Funeral rules, fees,…
Minnesota’s home insurance premiums jumped 34% in 2025, the biggest one-year increase of any state, according to the insurance-comparison site Insurify. Nobody mentions that at closing. These are the Minnesota living costs that surprise new transplants. Note: This is general information, not legal, financial, tax, or insurance advice. Rates, fees, and dollar amounts are subject…
More than two million businesses are registered in Delaware, according to the state’s Division of Corporations, and fewer than 1.1 million people live there. The paperwork outnumbers the people. These are the Delaware myths Delawareans are tired of correcting. 1. Smallest State? Delaware picks up the “smallest state” label more often than any other U.S….
Ohio ranks 29th in the country for physical inactivity, with roughly 1 in 5 adults reporting no exercise beyond their regular job in the past 30 days, according to America’s Health Rankings. Earlier generations didn’t always call it exercise, but they worked movement and other healthy routines into ordinary life. These are the old-fashioned wellness…
Fred DeLuca was seventeen when a family friend handed him $1,000 and told him to open a sandwich shop in Bridgeport. That shop sold 312 sandwiches on its first day and became Subway three years later. Connecticut has older claims than that one. These are the foods that were invented in Connecticut. 1. Hamburger The…
Somewhere near Exit 110 on Interstate 90, a driver crossing South Dakota passes the fourth hand-painted Wall Drug sign in five miles. The billboards are the tame part. These are the South Dakota roadside stops that are stranger than the billboards suggest. 1. Corn Palace The Corn Palace looks like exactly what the roadside signs…
A Philadelphia soup supposedly kept George Washington’s starving army alive through the Valley Forge winter of 1777. But historians have something to say about that. These are the Pennsylvania foods and drinks with origins Pennsylvanians get completely wrong. 1. Root Beer Charles Hires gets the credit for inventing root beer in Pennsylvania, a claim his…
