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@MmmmHmm as a resident of said state, I can assure you that we only touch one other, ever so gently… Two provinces, yes.

@Becky The Princess Bride is my all time favorite. Walked out of Conan the Barbarian.

@MExpat I do. And I never use scarf unless I’m talking about the article of clothing (technically an accessory).

@Tim Back when I was a high school senior doing the college hunt, I toured Virginia Tech. We passed the football stadium, which was emblazoned with the words “Home of the Fighting Gobblers.” Gobblers. As in turkeys. But of course they are known by another nickname, “Hokies,” which I was told came from an old college cheer: Hokie, hokie, hokie, hi. Tech, tech, VPI*. Sola-rex , sola-rah Polytech Virginia Ray rah VPI Team, team, team! Yes, I enrolled, and was in the Marching Virginians for four years, so I heard the cheer a lot. The mascot costume then looked like a turkey, with a long neck. Now it’s the Hokie Bird and is more manageable for the person sweating inside it. * Official name then, and perhaps still, was Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. At its founding, in 1872, it was Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.

@Ruben Sandwich people from Maine call themselves MAINERs. People from away call us Mainiacs, one of the many ways we can identify people from away 🤣 I, myself, am from away. Even though both of my parents were born here, I was not, and will forever be from away, even though I have lived here for more than half my life!

@Francis all wine tastes like vinegar to me. My husband doesn’t believe me, but it’s the way my palate is wired! I’ll take a Guinness instead!

@Cat Lady Margaret My husband, whose Maine roots go back for centuries, also hates this term! (I am more of a mutt and wasn’t born in Maine, although both of my parents were and many of our ancestors. Hubby and I are even very distant cousins.)

@Edward Rice I have been having intermittent trouble with my NYT app. Sometimes when I go to the games section it tells me that I have to subscribe to play the puzzle online. I am subscribed, and logged in! Today it did this after I completed the puzzle. I had to restart my iPad to get the stats back. I’m starting to think it might be an app issue, and not just my iPad. Fun puzzle, although it took me just over 30 minutes. About 3 of those were spent wrangling the cat, who couldn’t make up his mind exactly how he wanted to situate himself on my lap.

@Andrzej So many memories in this thread! I didn't have room in my schedule for typing so I took an adult ed course, one night a week, about a half hour drive from my home. I didn't have my drivers license yet, so my parents drove me. I took the class with a friend, and I think we were the youngest people there, at about 15. We used manual typewriters too. I am old enough to have typed my college papers on a manual typewriter as well. My mother's, from her college days. I still have it. Somewhere. My dad -- who never took a formal course -- was the king of two-finger typing, but he used his left index finger exclusively for the space bar, and his right index finger for everything else. He was pretty fast, and wrote a lot of short stories and even tried a novel or two.

@Andrzej DeathofRats? Sounds like a Terry Pratchett reference!

@Gary Arrrrr, ya scurvy dog! Now walk the plank!

@Vislander everyone I know calls it Tech. The Vatech thing is weird! I am far away from Blacksburg now, and haven’t been back in 40 years.

@Francis I have a friend who is “Gram” to her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her daughter-in-law is “Nana” to her grandchildren. Now I’m curious about how these names came about! My own grandmothers were Grandma and Grammie.