New England vs The Carolinas

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[Guest donaltopablo]

Well, I'm still mad at the Patriots for knocking my Raiders out a few years ago in the snow. The grudge is failing (even more so because we won it the next year and totally bombed in the super bowl).

I think it's going to be a tough came. It really comes down to can they stop the running game. Philly coudn't do it, and it cost them. Also, not turning the ball over. Patriots have the right kind of balance to do it, if they avoid mistakes and get their offense on the field.

I'll be going for Carolina though.

[Scott]

Are we comparing football teams or regions?

My money is on New England (the team )

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[tocoto]

NE and the Carolinas are similar in many respects. Mountains are in the north and west. Colder in the NW. Major rivers run to the coast, not to a larger river. Both have very nice sand beaches. Both were agricultural, then industial. Both grow tabacco and once had large textile industries. Both have small quaint cities like portland and savanah. Both have a lot of sprawl. Both have humid summers.

Some differences: NE is cool, carolinas warm. NE grows slowly for the most part, Carolinas grow fast for the most part. The Carolinas are quite a bit bigger than NE, SC is about the size of Maine. The remainder of NE is less than 30k sqmi, smaller than NC. Pop. density is higher in NE. Some Carolina has cities that are essentially new, NE not really. Boston is quite a bit bigger than the biggest city in the Carolinas (Charlotte). South coast of NE is quite urban probably more than any part of carolina.

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[Cotuit]

What is this Super Bowl of which you speak? Does it involve ice cream?

Weren't aware of Mountains in New England??? Where do you think the Appalachians go when they leave the Carolinas?

Probably the best known, Mt. Washington in New Hampshire in the Presidential Range.

Home of the world's highest recorded wind gust.

"The highest surface wind ever recorded on earth was on the summit of Mt Washington, 231 MPH on April 12, 1934."

Mt. Washington Observatory

And another famous mountain.

Rest in Peace Old Man.

[Cotuit]

Population Comparison (2003 estimate, US Census)

They are very close in size.

Massachusetts - 6,433,422

Rhode Island - 1,076,164

New Hampshire - 1,287,687

Vermont - 619,107

Connecticut - 3,183,372 (minus NYC metro)

Total NE Population - 12,599,752

Maine?

[Guest donaltopablo]

Maine?

You mean people actually live in Maine? I thought the population was like 2, Stephen King and some weird guy who got lost on his way to Canadian.

Mountains are very nice in New England, actually. Certainly if you like snow capped peaks. Some of my favorite on the east coast (sorry being from out west places like the "north georgia mountains" make me laugh).

[Cotuit]

Maine, 2002 Estimate: 1,294,464 more than RI, Vermont, and Cow Hampshire. Even I lived up there with Stephen King for a while (I eventually found Canada).

So...

Maine - 1,294,464

Massachusetts - 6,433,422

Rhode Island - 1,076,164

New Hampshire - 1,287,687

Vermont - 619,107

Connecticut - 3,460,503 (Entire state, as much as the rest of us New Englanders hate to admit it, Fairfield County is in New England)

Total: 14,171,347

North Carolina - 8,407,248

South Carolina - 4,147,152

Total Carolina population - 12,554,400

Close. New England's population density probably varies more widely than the Carolina's, with Southern New England being very dense and the north being almost empty. NH is so much larger than VT because it is part of Metro Boston. Northern NH is almost empty.

[Cotuit]

Area Square Miles:

ME 30,862

RI 1,045

MA 7,840

CT 4,845

NH 8,968

VT 9,250

TOTAL: 62,810

NC 48,711

SC 30,109

TOTAL: 78,820

Damn, why are your states so damn big?

[Cotuit]

We have a Charlotte, it's in Vermont.

Charlotte, Vermont

[Allan]

I never knew there were so many similarities between the two regions. I'd just always assumed they were total opposites I guess.

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[Guest donaltopablo]

Even I lived up there with Stephen King for a while (I eventually found Canada).

LOL

[tocoto]

NE trivia - There are lots of mountains and ski resorts in NE - Killington VT, Waterville Valley NH, Sugarloaf, ME. Most of the people in maine live along the coast in just inland. the north has a huge state park, Baxter, with the states tallest mountain, Mt. Katahdin sp? about 1 mile tall. The northwestern part of ME is a huge, privately held land mass that is owned by paper companies. there are no roads except private ones. You can drive on them but they run very large trucks loaded twice as wide as normal carrying logs so watch out. There are places in ME where you can drive you car through remote woods on old railroad beds passing ghost towns, old stations and crossing old railroad tressels with two wide boards laid across the ties. ME was part of MA in colonial times and was not one of the original 13 states in name. MA, CT and RI are known as southern NE. At the beach, the water is much warmer on the south side of Cape Cod. The north side is influenced by the Labrador current rather than the gulf stream, and is quite cold even in the summer. The lakes in ME freeze in the winter to the point where a car can be driven on them. They used to have auto races on the lakes in some places. NE is littered with old factories from the 1800's. They are very interesting but sometimes dilapidated and depressing. Boston was once the largest port in NA. Clipper ships were invented there. The extent of the port is pretty amazing even now, although much of it is underutilized. When they built the central aretery (before the big dig) they actually cut some buildings in half, and in some cases one half of the building still stands. there is a cog railway to the top of Mt Washington, and a road for cars as well. if you want real serenity and nature go to ME.

[Cotuit]

Vermont is also not one of the original 13 colonies. It was fought over for a while between New York and New Hampshire. At times the fight broke into war. For a period Vermont declared itself a republic. Eventually, NY and NH were forced to give up their claims and the new state was formed. The first Europeans in Vermont were french and that is where it gets its name 'ver' green 'mont' mountain.

Maine also has a large franco-american population. My great-grandmother grew up outside of Portland at the start of the last century and spoke french as her first language. Most of that has died out, but there are still a number of french speakers living along the canadian border.

[Cotuit]

I think someone from the Boston.com has been reading this thead.

The other Super Bowl

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[Cotuit]

A lot of people up this way are making a lot of noise about the merger. Fleet made huge investments in local programs, and some people aren't too happy about BofA's promises in that regard. Also the naming rights for Fleet Centre (the home of the Bruins and the Celtics) is getting some press. Fleet isn't such a bad corporated name because it's an actual word that has some meaning to the city, it's a coastal word, one could almost not realize that it was a corporate name. But there is no mistaking that Bank of America Centre is a corporate name. Apparently BofA has to go through an approval process to change the name. In Providence, our outdoor skating rink downtown is sponsored by and named after Fleet, so we will probably see the Bank of America Skating Centre next year, unless they sell off the rights.

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[Cotuit]

If past history is any indication, the name Fleet will disappear.

Oh, I have no doubt about that. But Fleet has it's name on a lot of stuff. It remains to be seen if BofA will want to put it's name on all of it. The Fleet Centre is a no brainer, they'll certainly want to keep that, but they may sell off some of the pidly naming rights. There are some smaller regional banks moving in as well. I think it's Citizens which recently bought rights to the toll plaza on the Tobin Bridge, which was originally Bank of Boston's naming right, which was taken by Fleet in the merger... all very confusing.

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