North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

[SturgisJeff]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

When I was at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, GA I went to buy a used car from a dealer there. He asked me where I was from and told him South Dakota. He said he never met anyone from there before and said we must be alright people so he let me take the car home that night with no money down and said I could pay him the next day. At a bar there was a line at the bar to get a beer so when a woman was first in line I asked her if she would order me a beer. By my accent she said "Hell no, your a yankee.". So I said to her yea but I had relations that fought for the Confederates in the war (mom's side). She replied, "Oh yea, than sing Dixie." So I did and she got me the beer.

[jacks1]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

Well, occasionally you have to consider the source . . .

And actually, it's not so much "Dakota" as it is a kind of blank stare. I was once asked if South Dakota was next to North Carolina. Go figure.

I've been asked what country South Dakota is in....dead serious.

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

I think before we get too outraged, I think we should ask ourselves, "Can I (or my neighbor) name the boroughs of New York city and where they are located in relation to each other?

I don't think many people in South Dakota could do that, but most people on the east coast could; regional infamiliarity does not equate to ignorance.

[filbert]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

I think before we get too outraged, I think we should ask ourselves, "Can I (or my neighbor) name the boroughs of New York city and where they are located in relation to each other?

I don't think many people in South Dakota could do that, but most people on the east coast could; regional infamiliarity does not equate to ignorance.

No, when you can't get within a thousand miles of knowing where a STATE is, that my friend is pretty much the definition of ignorance. There's a difference in kind between a place that sends two Senators to Washington and any minor civil subdivision.

[NoVaJack]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

I think before we get too outraged, I think we should ask ourselves, "Can I (or my neighbor) name the boroughs of New York city and where they are located in relation to each other?

I don't think many people in South Dakota could do that, but most people on the east coast could; regional infamiliarity does not equate to ignorance.

Excellent point, exactly what I was trying to say about sweeping entire regions under stereotypes. Would disagree, however, on the claim that most people on the east coast could place the NY boroughs. My guess is some New Yorkers couldn't The degree of geographical illiteracy can be breathtaking. I know people from Maryland who think driving into Virginia is driving into a different country, century and planet, and get lost every time they do it.

[NoVaJack]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

I've been asked what country South Dakota is in....dead serious.

Some possible answers:
- Empty Quarter (actual name from Joel Garreau's '81 book, "The Nine Nations of North America.")
- Russia. We're part of a stealth invasion. Next annexation: Nebraska.
- Oz. Just north of Kansas.
- Ellsworth. As in the Air Force Base. As in, "we own a couple of big air bases, some bomber wings, and some still useable missile fields in the middle of the U.S. of A."
-South Dakota IS a country.

[JimmyJack]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

I have always had this theory (and keep in mind that my wife is from New Jersey, and that this is just a theory) that a series of factors mean people in the center of the nation have a better overall sense of the breadth of the U.S. than many people on the coasts.

1. Media messages are overwhelmingly dominated by coastal concerns.
2. We have similar access to those messages as people on the coasts.
3. In our socially constructed realities, media message play an ever larger role in defining what we "know".

So, in my theory anyway, people in the "empty middle" of the country obviously have a sense of their own region, but thanks to that coastal media bias, we also have a decent sense of the coasts. If reality is socially constructed (increasingly over time through media messages) we here in the center of nowhere should have a broader and more inclusive picture of the nation in our heads.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it. And most of the anecdotal evidence that I've collected (I've lived, briefly, in the southeast, a couple of years in the southwest and all around the midwest) has only confirmed my theory. For example, most of the highly-educated and very interesting people at my wife's 20th high school anniversary last summer also had very narrow, east coast-centric worldviews. Few of them ever give the country outside of the tri-state area a second thought.

[NoVaJack]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

, most of the highly-educated and very interesting people at my wife's 20th high school anniversary last summer also had very narrow, east coast-centric worldviews. Few of them ever give the country outside of the tri-state area a second thought.

Well they weren't all THAT educated then, were they? And to me, to be "interesting" you gotta be "interested."

[RabbitObsessed]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

Excellent point, exactly what I was trying to say about sweeping entire regions under stereotypes. Would disagree, however, on the claim that most people on the east coast could place the NY boroughs. My guess is some New Yorkers couldn't The degree of geographical illiteracy can be breathtaking. I know people from Maryland who think driving into Virginia is driving into a different country, century and planet, and get lost every time they do it.

I wasn't sweeping entire regions under stereotypes. The deep south has the lowest literacy rates and lowest percentage of high school graduates than any other part of the country. Those aren't stereotypes, those are facts.

[filbert]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

I wasn't sweeping entire regions under stereotypes. The deep south has the lowest literacy rates and lowest percentage of high school graduates than any other part of the country. Those aren't stereotypes, those are facts.

Speaking of literacy, did you even read the article that this whole thread is based upon? Did you follow a link or two and go to the site of the sponsor of the study?

The word "literacy" does not appear once in the linked article.

It does however have to do with "brain health," which the researchers highly correlate with omega 3 fatty acid consumption. Oddly enough, the sponsors of the study sell omega 3 products.

That's why my quip upthread was about omega 3's.

A phrase about throwing stones in glass houses comes to mind . . .

[1stRowFANatic]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

No, when you can't get within a thousand miles of knowing where a STATE is, that my friend is pretty much the definition of ignorance. There's a difference in kind between a place that sends two Senators to Washington and any minor civil subdivision.

Maybe, but compare the populations of the various geographic areas and the individuals of one them may argue that even though SD is a state, it really is the minor civil subdivision.

[RabbitObsessed]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

Speaking of literacy, did you even read the article that this whole thread is based upon? Did you follow a link or two and go to the site of the sponsor of the study?

The word "literacy" does not appear once in the linked article.

It does however have to do with "brain health," which the researchers highly correlate with omega 3 fatty acid consumption. Oddly enough, the sponsors of the study sell omega 3 products.

That's why my quip upthread was about omega 3's.

A phrase about throwing stones in glass houses comes to mind . . .

Yes, I realize that that article had nothing to do about any of that. My first post was simply a joke poking fun of the south. Nova said I was just stereotyping, and I was using things like literacy rate and high school graduation % to say that my joke actually had factual basis. The south is less educated than the rest of the country. I realize this has NOTHING to do with the link. I was making a joke...

[JimmyJack]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

Well they weren't all THAT educated then, were they? And to me, to be "interesting" you gotta be "interested."

Many of them work in banking and related industries. There's a LOT of money in Summit, NJ (Charlie Gibson and John Corzine live there.) Many of my wife's classmates have MBAs and law degrees. That region of the country tends to be very caught up in itself. It's the center of the universe to them, and the rest of the country is just flyover territory.

[NoVaJack]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

Many of them work in banking and related industries. There's a LOT of money in Summit, NJ (Charlie Gibson and John Corzine live there.) Many of my wife's classmates have MBAs and law degrees. That region of the country tends to be very caught up in itself. It's the center of the universe to them, and the rest of the country is just flyover territory.

We're agreed, JJ... I'm just trying to argue that being educated and interesting goes beyond getting a degree and being primarily interested in yourself.

[JimmyJack]

Re: North Dakota among the least brain-healthy states

We're agreed, JJ... I'm just trying to argue that being educated and interesting goes beyond getting a degree and being primarily interested in yourself.

I agree completely. Those "successful" people I met at my wife's reunion made me kind of sad. They are so caught up in themselves.