state by state speak your mind about...north dakota

[dmallind]

6. Can't offer much but...

A former boyfriend of my wife's was from North Dakota but lived in Minnesota. Whenever he saw an ND plate in the latter state he would check out the driver in case he knew them personally. He often did.

Despite a startlingly minuscule population density and dead straight hill-free highways, I managed to get a speeding ticket for 77 in a 75 on a bright summer day with characteristically low traffic in rural ND*. Needless to say, I had out of state plates, unlike the 3 or 4 cars who had blown by me like I wasn't moving in the prior 10 minutes. Still, state revenue has to come from somewhere I guess.

In re * above: yes Virginia, there IS a non-rural part of ND. It even has a hotel.

The incredibly low unemployment rate is a testament to residents' hardiness, work ethic and loyalty. That and the tendency for a huge ratio of grads to bugger off for warmer and/or more cosmopolitan states the minute they enter the work force.

North Dakota had at one point in the last 20 years, and still may have for all I know, the only county in the entire country where every single private phone number was in the white pages, with no unlisted numbers at all.

Dinosaurs abound from ND's legendary fossil finds. The state boasts a real complete triceratops, a stegosaurus and Byron Dorgan.

Despite many similarities, Winterfell is not in ND, nor does the border with Manitoba feature a huge sheer wall peopled with violent celibates in black furs. No - the wall is not that big at all.

Roger Maris came from North Dakota! .....but so did Lawrence Welk.

They had a serious initiative in 1989 that went to the point of a legislative vote to change their name, in a Greenlandesque marketing move, to just "Dakota". It failed. No-one knows why.