bobg@radix.net (Robert Grumbine) writes: > singhals <singhals@erols.com> wrote: > > [snip] > > > >Mid-West. To me, Midwest is everything between the > >Alleghany Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. I've heard > >other definitions from people born in some of those states > >-- Texas in particular disapproves of it. (g) > > Likewise us non-Texans :-) Which brings to mind the question as to why Texas is known as the Southwest. Texas is nearly in the center of the east-west axis of the U.S. California is as far south as Texas and quite a bit more west but isn't considered part of the Southwest. > One definition of some historical relevance is that the > midwest is the states composed wholly or in part of the > old Northwest Territory -- Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, > Wisconsin, and Minnesota. I'd forgotten about the "Northwest". When I first went to live in Minnesota, it took me awhile to understand from whence came all the Northwest's (as in Northwest Airlines, Northwest Bank, etc.) when it was nowhere near the northwestern-most part of the U.S.

In article <20080222.79BEB38.B997@mojaveg.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com>, mojaveg@mojaveg.lsan.mdsg-pacwest.com (Everett M. Greene) writes: > bobg@radix.net (Robert Grumbine) writes: >> singhals <singhals@erols.com> wrote: >> >> [snip] >> > >> >Mid-West. To me, Midwest is everything between the >> >Alleghany Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. I've heard >> >other definitions from people born in some of those states >> >-- Texas in particular disapproves of it. (g) >> >> Likewise us non-Texans :-) > > Which brings to mind the question as to why Texas is > known as the Southwest. Texas is nearly in the center > of the east-west axis of the U.S. California is as > far south as Texas and quite a bit more west but isn't > considered part of the Southwest. Probably because California is on the West Coast - you can't go much farther west without getting your feet wet. Texas, well, maybe because to get there, back in the day, you had to go south and west from most likely starting places. Still, the Southwest, as a region, encompasses not only Texas, but New Mexico and Arizona, as well. All of which means absolutely nothing. Way I look at it, the way Joel Garreau describes the regional "arrangement" best in "The Nine Nations of North America", which I heartily recommend, tho' it is a bit out-dated. <snip> Bob -- Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas ----- Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it. -- Henry Ford