So Arlington and Alexandria were once part of the District of Columbia..."Whoodathought?"

[still_waiting]

Look at Vermont. Look at it closely. Look at a political map of Vermont, look at a relief map of Vermont. Tell me how it was formed. Don't go a 'Googlin away, (which will probably happen anyway). Also by the shape of Vermont tell me which state it was once a part of.

Now I'm sure an informed resident from Vermont or the surrounding states would probably be able to state the strongsuggestive/obvious/almost obvious, but without any background knowledge it wonder just how strongsuggestive/obvious/almost obvious the answer is.

[still_waiting]

Originally Posted by brooklynborndad

still waiting, do you ever do jigsaw puzzles?

Yes I did, and I'm SO happy you brought this question up. You'll see why in a minute. But to answer your question I had a 500 piece Return of the Jedi poster that me and my cousin put together and put a clear varnish on it, attached to a piece of cardboard and mounted it on our wall .

[jmking]

As I recall Vermont was once part of New York and some parts belonged to New Hampshire. Details escape me, if I'm not mistaking the governor of New Hampshire decided that this part of very rural New York needed some governing, so, he proceeded to govern it and to make a long story short got the people of that region to seceded from NY and proclaim themselves a new state. I'm sure it was much more complicated than that but I believe that was the jest of it.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by still_waiting

Just saw this on a Discovery Channel show last night. They separated from D.C. due to a disagreement over slavery. I find American history to be very interesting...especially when it is presented truthfully.

Hm..the way you said you find American history interesting. Are you American or moved to the U.S. from somewhere else?

I've never heard of anyone interested in American history who didn't know the history of how DC was formed.

I was also going to say 'disagreement over slavery' is a controversial statement, especially to Southerners. I'm a Northerner myself, but always thought it was a can of worms to simplify it in those terms - at least when mentioning it with more knowledgable Southerners on the subject.

[pseudo]

Wow, quite a thread....

I did not grow up in this country and when someone told me that Arlington was part of DC at one time, and that together they formed a square - well, shuck my corn - I thought that was pretty cool too. And it is not obvious on all maps, and I've been known to use ArcGIS too. That was all the coolness I needed about that subject because I never did further research into why that happened. But, if you'd like to talk about population dynamics, I'm in!

[still_waiting]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Hm..the way you said you find American history interesting. Are you American or moved to the U.S. from somewhere else?

I've never heard of anyone interested in American history who didn't know the history of how DC was formed.

I was also going to say 'disagreement over slavery' is a controversial statement, especially to Southerners. I'm a Northerner myself, but always thought it was a can of worms to simplify it in those terms - at least when mentioning it with more knowledgable Southerners on the subject.

What kind of dumb effing question are you asking me? Take some time and think about the extremely stupid and logically devoid comment you made after the stupid question. Just in case you are too slow to do so yourself I'll help you. You are basically asking about my citizenship based off of me saying I find American History interesting, but yet not knowing that Arlington and Alexandria were once a part of the District? Wow!!

So I guess all that I typed about my educational background escaped you...well just in case you missed it I'll cut and paste it for you.

I am a Geospatial major that graduated Summa *** Laude with a 3.9 Cumulative GPA, member of the International Geographic Honor Society, a member of the American Society of Photogrammerty and Remote Sensing, a member of the Association of American Geographers in which I made it to the regionals as a contestant in the AAG Geography Bowl. So when I look at matters of the sort I tend to look at it from a Macro perspective and not so much into the minutiae, so please forgive me for not seeing the "obvious" in relation to Arlington and Alexandria and their relation to D.C. The border could have very well been the result of the Potomac in the eyes of someone who did not know that they seceded.

I guess all that gets blown into the wind because I was recently unaware of one fact. I guess Columbia University must be desperate for students since they are still soft recruiting me to be a grad student in their Climate and Society program. I guess the Gov't Intelligence Agency that I work for was desperate as well. Think before you type and stop trying to be skeptical/cynical just for the eff of it.

[still_waiting]

Originally Posted by jmking

As I recall Vermont was once part of New York and some parts belonged to New Hampshire. Details escape me, if I'm not mistaking the governor of New Hampshire decided that this part of very rural New York needed some governing, so, he proceeded to govern it and to make a long story short got the people of that region to seceded from NY and proclaim themselves a new state. I'm sure it was much more complicated than that but I believe that was the jest of it.

Yes you are mostly correct, and that was a nice, succinct explanation to boot!! You see, you had to know that in order to answer correctly. It's not like you would have known that information from looking at a map exclusively. And had you not known about the history, it wouldn't have made you any less intelligent, even though that's something I remember being taught from my early years in school. For some reason the things I learned about New England stuck with me more than the things we learned about the Nation's Capitol. I was always in the gifted and talented curriculum, but hey I didn't retain everything. But I could tell you everything you wanted to know about sphincters and the human body in general. I remember in the 6th grade learning about sphincters...two that stood out are the cardiac and pyloric sphincters of the stomach. I remember them distinctly, but I wouldn't jump on somebody if they couldn't obviously point out that the cardiac sphincter was the one on top closest to the heart. Ok I'm rambling now, but enough with the "obvious" statements...it's all freaking relative and not an indication of a lack of intelligence. We can't all know everything, that's why there should be an endless pursuit of learning. I get excited about that pursuit.

[FindingZen]

This thread is closed per OP's request.