How does your state work?

[scotchandcigar]

This is not about politics: it's a little bit about my state, but mostly about the TV ads I was bombarded with for the past year, especially during the final 2 weeks leading up to the election - where they ramped it up to 6 to 10 ads per commercial break, just for this one particular race (on top of everything else). That's especially odd, as the number of undecided voters (only a few percent to begin with) goes down. And statistically, almost half of undecided voters don't even end up voting. According to public information, $35 million was spent on this single (Maine District 2) congressional race. And look how it has turned out:



There are a few things to note:
- Because Maine has ranked-choice voting, it's taken this long to get (nearly) all the votes tabulated.
- District 2 is the giant gray area on the map. It's gray because the race hasn't been called yet.
- Like the majority of people in the state, I don't live in District 2. I live near the bottom of the nipple hanging down from District 1 (the little blue area).
- Therefore, while this race affects the balance in the US House, it doesn't pertain to me any more than a race in Utah or North Dakota.
- I estimate that I've been subjected to around 10,000 TV ads for a race that is not relevant to me; yet I've had to endure. I finally started watching network TV on delay, or listening to music.
- The result of all this is a 2,000 vote differential. One might say they're at the same place as before the campaigning began. It's just that my brain is fried.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

So 99% of your state is district 2 and 1% is in the little blue part of the state?

 

[HecticArt]

I'm Sooooo glad that the freaking commercials and texts have stopped!

 

[scotchandcigar]

So 99% of your state is district 2 and 1% is in the little blue part of the state?

Well area-wise, it's probably 90% vs 10%. But the population is roughly similar (which may be how they decided to apportion it). What's funny is that the little blue area still covers a good section of the coast. Like the upper part of it is 2 or 3 hours from me.

 

[JHDK]

Well area-wise, it's probably 90% vs 10%. But the population is roughly similar (which may be how they decided to apportion it). What's funny is that the little blue area still covers a good section of the coast. Like the upper part of it is 2 or 3 hours from me.

I imagine that goes back to colonial days like everybody lived on the southern coast of Maine and then once things got better people branched out. That seems to be how it worked everywhere.

 

[scotchandcigar]

I imagine that goes back to colonial days like everybody lived on the southern coast of Maine and then once things got better people branched out. That seems to be how it worked everywhere.

I should point out (for non-Mainers) that much of the big gray District 2 region on that map is mountains, lakes, rivers, parks, and forestry. That's where all the ski mountains and rafting, canoeing, fishing and boating are. So much of it is not habitable, or inaccessible.

 

[JHDK]

I should point out (for non-Mainers) that much of the big gray District 2 region on that map is mountains, lakes, rivers, parks, and forestry. That's where all the ski mountains and rafting, canoeing, fishing and boating are. So much of it is not habitable, or inaccessible.

Exactly. It's like Meriwether Lewis shit. It ain't normal pilgrims trying to find a new life and settle down. The people who decided to go to the gray area of Maine were kind of like explorers. At least the first ones were. I'm not wrong about that right?

 

[sadchild]

Well area-wise, it's probably 90% vs 10%. But the population is roughly similar (which may be how they decided to apportion it). What's funny is that the little blue area still covers a good section of the coast. Like the upper part of it is 2 or 3 hours from me.

District 1. Office job people and rich coastline property owners.

District 2. Where the punch lines to "what people from Maine are like" come from.

 

[Channel98]

Portland classic-rock station WBLM to the rescue!

Learn to Speak Like a Mainer With These 45 Mainah Words

We polled Mainers and asked them what words they would want to be added as an official word to the English language. Here are the top 45 choices.

wblm.com

 

[sadchild]

NH DOT has officially gone insane

 

[HecticArt]

Dafuq?

Funny as hell, but why the hell are they bringing Ohio into this?
I could get the basics of the other sentences, but that one doesn't translate into old-guy.

 

[Channel98]

Yes, New Hampshire's Department of Transportation has lost all credibility. You might say their credibility has gone down the toilet. I searched for "skibbity" and got this result from Microsoft Edge:

"Skibbity is a nonsense word that can be used as an adjective to describe something as cool, bad or dumb, depending on the context. Skibidi is a part of Gen-Alpha slang. Skibidi Toilet is the name of a popular animated YouTube series that follows the adventures of an alliance of humanoids and TVs."

 

[sadchild]

an adjective to describe something as cool, bad or dumb

Gen-A seems to have at least a few of these. I can't remember any of the other ones offhand right now though.

 

[scotchandcigar]

This story - about a cat that got away from a family in NH, and ended up in Michigan - certainly has a local aspect to it. But that's not my reason for posting. The real story here is about how New Hampshire gets viewed and treated by the Boston area.

This is an article from a NH news site. It leads with the name of the NH town where the cat is from - Londonderry.

Londonderry family reunited with cat found in Ann Arbor, Michigan

A Londonderry family has been reunited with their beloved cat, Komiko, eight months after she disappeared.

www.wmur.com

But this is the story that's being shared by all of the Boston area news outlets. Note how "New Hampshire" is essentially being treated as the name of a town. I came across this story first, and I was frustrated that they don't say where this happened, only "New Hampshire". And to add insult to injury, they clearly mention the name of the town in Michigan (Ann Arbor) where the cat ended up. And then they include a follow-up article about a cat from Somerville (MA) who ended up at Logan Airport. They didn't call it "Massachusetts Airport".

Missing cat reunited with New Hampshire family after 700 mile journey

It was a long-awaited reunion for a family in New Hampshire after their beloved missing cat was found 700 miles away in Michigan.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[sadchild]

reminds me of an old saying...

New Hampshire - Boston's Biggest Suburb

 

[scotchandcigar]

NH DOT has officially gone insane

View attachment 10191

And in reply:

NHDOT tried to manufacture rizz in a winter driving advisory. Commenters did not hold back.

The NHDOT is trying to make fetch happen. Or as they think the kids say, "rizz." Also "Skibbity." "Sus." "Ick." And more.

www.boston.com

 

[sadchild]

I don't disagree with trying to get the message out, especially to the 30 and under people. But a creepy head sticking out of a toilet ain't the way to do it. You still have to maintain professionalism. I mean, if you wanted the post to go viral and you have no scruples or intent to stay professional, might as well just post porn.

 

[goreds2]

How an incoming law will affect Ohioans access to police body camera video​

The statute is intended to cover the administrative costs associated with editing the video since police departments often have to redact the voices or faces of uncharged suspects or victims whose identities are protected under the law.

Agencies will not be required to charge a fee and can do so at their own discretion. Departments will be allowed to charge up to $75 per hour of video, with fees capped at $750 per request.

More here:

MSN

 

[JHDK]

I mentioned something about people in much lower socioeconomic statuses commingling with people in cities like tamarac that are actually kind of fucking nice still. I mean they're like upper working class at worst.

That made me think about how Florida works.

I don't know about all of Pennsylvania, but at least in Philly and the suburbs it was pretty fucking simple. The ghettos are over here. Working classes over here. Suburbs are over here. Rich people are over here. It was segmented. It was pretty fucking simple.

That's not at all how it is in South Florida.

Have any of you ever been to Delray Beach? It's kind of a big South Florida beach like in between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm. It's known as a nice beach area.

Yet I was shocked when I got here and I'm not exaggerating. So from the beach to a bit over half a mile west to the railroad tracks it is a rich fucking neighborhood. I went to shows that cost like 50 bucks to cover and this was in 2006 or 8 or something like that. Having a meal at a nice spot on Atlantic Ave in Delray Beach close to the beach is easy 70 minimum to more like 150 a plate.

However, on the same Atlantic avenue in Delray Beach as soon as you get west of the railroad tracks which like I said is quite literally about half a mile from all the fancy shit.... You can buy a bag of heroin and the cops are going to hassle you no matter what you look like. If you're driving around residential streets on the other side of the tracks you're going to get hassled.

It's fucking wild bro. It was such a culture shift when I got here initially.

 

[JHDK]

And if you think that's bad, you should see where Pam works. She works at like a really fancy elementary School right on the intracoastal. Houses around the school go for low 7s because I've looked into it. They're cute little houses. To be fair, most of them do have guest houses behind them that a part of the price.

Yet not even half a mile like four blocks away. She literally passes by whores every single morning to get to school.

It's fucking wild how all this shit is intermingled.