When I was little, I learned the states from the hand-painted map on the neighbor's camping trailer, which they filled in every summer: "All Lower 48!" it said. Also, I had a beat jigsaw puzzle, where Rhode Island was the size of a Geritol. We must've swallowed and pooped that state out five times as kids. Good times.
Meanwhile, the kid's neighbors in our old place on the East Side will be studying the states they're flying over between Teterboro and Aspen and Martha's Vineyard.
Some things don't change, though: New England still looks like a choke hazard.
My USA Puzzle Map, $32 at Uncommon Goods [uncommongoods.com via Cookie's new Travel Products feature. Also Swiss Miss circa Feb '06]
That looks similar to the Solar System Travel Bag, except it's actually useful.
Solar System travel bag
[how weird, the planets are all attached. it's the same designer. the puzzle's $2 cheaper at their site. -ed.]
in this overly safety-obsessed age, children today are deprived of the opportunities we once had: to poop rhode island multiple times with no consequences. as a native rhode islander, i protest the fact that my ancestral homeland is perpetually stuck, in EVERY DARN STATES PUZZLE we've ever looked at, to CT and MA. sure, we all like seafood, but we are our own states, with our own identities! what kind of message is it to send to my children; daddy's state (WI) deserves its own discrete piece but mommy's doesn't? i see on that uncommon goods puzzle, the new england pieces are suspiciously not on the puzzle. grr.
[they're that lightning bolt-shaped thing on the lower left. meanwhile, look on the bright side: At least you have senators-- and tacky embroidered state pillows. unlike DC -ed]
I wonder if the N.E.-lightning bolt piece is red for fun or if the folks at Uncommon Goods are having a joke at the expense of Rhode Island Marjorie and the rest of her blue-state ilk?
AUGH, worse and worse! to be stuck not only to CT and MA as usual, but to VT, NH and friggin MAINE????? and that thing doesn't look like lightning; it looks like a piece of poop. i am SO BOYCOTTING these boomers and their lame wrong sushi.
DC has it's own tacky embroidered city pillow
[whew, thanks. now about those senators... -ed]