America and Americans / Europeans

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:56 PM -0500 2/22/02, David Bergdahl wrote:
>I have a friend who insists the Midwest begins at Troy, NY (east shore of
>the Hudson at Albany)
>
My mother was from Troy, NY, and the last thing she ever would have
considered herself to be was a Midwesterner.  She freely acknowledged
that Troy was the armpit (or, depending on the audience, the asshole)
of the world, but the Midwest--never.

larry