erroneous Nebraska fact

[franksolich]

I happened to read last night a publication put out by a governmental agency here in Nebraska, wherein it was stated that "Nebraska is the 5th-largest state."

Whoa-ho.

Somebody in Lincoln had better pull out their geography book; while Nebraska is more of a state than all those piddly little places in New England, I suspect Nebraska's pretty far from 5th place--15th place, maybe.

(I haven't checked, but I suspect we're 15th-largest, or somewhere near that.)

Believe it or not, Kansas is a whole lot larger than Nebraska, and even South Dakota is at least five or six 18-hole golf courses larger.  It's an optical illusion, because of the curve of the globe, that makes Nebraska seem larger than it really is.

This list of "facts" mentioned something else that seems credible, but given the gross error as described above, now I'm not so sure this credible-sounding fact is true.

It says "Nebraska has more miles of river than any other state."

Well, that could be true, I dunno.  We do seem to be loaded pretty good with rivers, rivers all over the place.

Does anybody know?

[JohnnyReb]

West Virgina is the largest state in the union.....well, it would be if you ironed all the hills flat.

[NHSparky]

I happened to read last night a publication put out by a governmental agency here in Nebraska, wherein it was stated that "Nebraska is the 5th-largest state."

Whoa-ho.

Somebody in Lincoln had better pull out their geography book; while Nebraska is more of a state than all those piddly little places in New England, I suspect Nebraska's pretty far from 5th place--15th place, maybe.

(I haven't checked, but I suspect we're 15th-largest, or somewhere near that.)

Believe it or not, Kansas is a whole lot larger than Nebraska, and even South Dakota is at least five or six 18-hole golf courses larger.  It's an optical illusion, because of the curve of the globe, that makes Nebraska seem larger than it really is.

This list of "facts" mentioned something else that seems credible, but given the gross error as described above, now I'm not so sure this credible-sounding fact is true.

It says "Nebraska has more miles of river than any other state."

Well, that could be true, I dunno.  We do seem to be loaded pretty good with rivers, rivers all over the place.

Does anybody know?

16th, actually--very close, coach.

The ten largest (by TOTAL area):

Alaska
Texas
California
Montana
New Mexico
Arizona
Nevada
Colorado
Oregon
Wyoming

[Lord Undies]

I get a chuckle crossing some of the NE states.  It takes longer to drive through Dallas/Ft. Worth.   

Whatever Nebraska is lacking in geography it more than makes up for in solid character.  I consider it the Spine of America.

[franksolich]

While having lunch with someone, I re-read the thing.

I looked for the "credits."

The woman--a Nebraska state employee, remember--credited with compiling the statistics has a degree from....."UConn."

What the Hades does anybody from Connecticut know about Nebraska?

Of course, maybe Nebraska--about 450 miles wide, 300 miles thick, roughly--might seem big to her, given that Cherry County alone (Valentine, population of county something a little less than 6,000) is larger than the whole state of Connecticut.

This is one of the reasons I always thought they should make New England just one single state (which would end up being about the size of Nebraska), to put it, generally, on par with the other states.

Too, there would be the added bonus that instead of sending twelve Democrats to the U.S. Senate, New England could send only two.

[Bluesuiter-Retired]

I get a chuckle crossing some of the NE states.  It takes longer to drive through Dallas/Ft. Worth.   

Whatever Nebraska is lacking in geography it more than makes up for in solid character.  I consider it the Spine of America.

Whats fun is driving east-to-west or west-to-east across Montana.  Depending upon how fast you drive, it will take you a full day's worth of driving from one end to the other.  When you're in the western and south central part of the state at least you have some decent scenery to keep you busy, but damn when you hit the area around Billings to the north Dakota border, the terrain is the SAME.  If you drive by a tumbleweed at a certain mile marker it seems that a couple miles further down the road you will swear you just passed the same tumbleweed.

[Lord Undies]

Whats fun is driving east-to-west or west-to-east across Montana.  Depending upon how fast you drive, it will take you a full day's worth of driving from one end to the other.  When you're in the western and south central part of the state at least you have some decent scenery to keep you busy, but damn when you hit the area around Billings to the north Dakota border, the terrain is the SAME.  If you drive by a tumbleweed at a certain mile marker it seems that a couple miles further down the road you will swear you just passed the same tumbleweed.

The most useless road sign in the world is on I-10 going west out of Orange, TX.  It says "El Paso - 810".  Who the he11 needs to know that?

"The sun has risen and the sun has set but our butts ain't out of Texas yet."

[The Village Idiot]

The most useless road sign in the world is on I-10 going west out of Orange, TX.  It says "El Paso - 810".  Who the he11 needs to know that?

"The sun has risen and the sun has set but our butts ain't out of Texas yet."

I was surprised how cold it could get in El Paso at night, its a desert of course but wow.

[Lord Undies]

I was surprised how cold it could get in El Paso at night, its a desert of course but wow.

Yep.  Dry air does not retain heat.  When the sun goes down the goosebumps come up.