What is the OFFICIAL term for a native of Massachusetts?

It can't be "Masshole." It just can't. Massachusettsan? Massachusite?

Flatlander, I believe.

I think.

I wanted to say "Nutmegger" but that's another state.

:D

And I drive like a complete lunatic in neighboring states to prove it

:hide:

x( It's quite a culture shock to those coming from the Midwest.

I like Mass. I just have to learn how to keep my Yankee shirts at home when I go there. :P

GET IT RIGHT OR DIE!! :D

Bay Stater is the name on all the tourist brochures, but we know better, don't we?
Actually, I think the Massholes congregate east of I-495, and the Bay Staters are west of it, although there are exceptions.}(

I was a west-of-495'er personally (Worcester)

:shrug:

You're on notice...:grr:

:hi:

The only culture you'll find there is in a cup of yogurt...;)

At least here I can drive somewhere faster than I can walk it.

:silly:

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Hyannisport to hob-knob with the hoi polloi...:silly:

ok have fun. I'd prefer to bike around Block Island myself, but each to his own.

:toast:

Just posted and saw you listed in the Pittsburgh Zombie attack thread too...back to work...:(

... but Boston is still Boston. Forget about driving. Use the T. It goes everywhere. Anyway, on the few occasions I drove it was never a real problem. The road directions are confusing to an outsider, but the traffic isn't THAT bad if you drive like a New Englander (recklessly).

I don't know about you, but I lived there for 8 years. Generally you can forget about driving, but many people can't afford to live within T range anymore. 1600 bucks a few years ago for a 2 bed in arlington where you had to ride a bus for 20 minutes, minimum, just to get to Alewife T station, to ride the T for an hour to get downtown. Still faster than driving, but still...yuck.

To say traffic isn't that bad makes me wonder how long you spent there, and how much you drove, and where. Traffic there is/was horrendous.

Anyway Boston has gone downhill. Far too crowded these days and once you're older than 25 there isn't much to do that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

From 18-25 it's a kick ass town. After that a sane person wants something nicer IMHO.

Anyone is obviously free to comment on anything they like. I simply won't pay much heed to someones comments about what it's like to live in a city (traffic, culture, whatever) unless they've lived there for at least a few years as an independent adult.

I've been to L.A. twice. Couldn't really stand the place. I won't comment on what it's like to live there though, because I really have no idea.

I lived for four years growing up in Dallas. I won't comment on that though because it's hard for a fourth grader to really judge what it's like to live in a city.

I know plenty of born and bred, as well as adopted, Bostonians who will verbally defend their fair city to the death, and I love each and every one of them (including my Sister).

My point is that unless you've lived there. Really lived there. You don't really know it. Someone who grew up in Worcester knows Boston as well as someone who grew up in Youngstown Ohio knows Pittsburgh. I simply don't give their comments much credence.

That's what I meant.

:pals:

Lived there for three years while in law school (Cambridge, technically) and the drivers there are enough to scare the hair off a gorilla. Real Boston drivers stamp little pedestrian silhouettes on the driver's door the way WWII pilots painted rising suns or swastikas on their planes to symbolize a kill. Official Masshole driving posture: Right foot on the floor, right hand on horn, left hand extended out window giving the bird.

And the roads! Let's say you're looking for 18 Old Stink Town Road. You find said road and it has no No. 18 but ends in a brick wall. Ask native for directions. "Nah, ya want the New Old Stink Town Road. It's five miles from here and runs nawth and south, not east and west."

Other than that, I did love Boston, honest. But I hated riding with anyone, and just took the T, which was great.

Your description was close to perfect, except you neglected to mention that neither Old Stink Town Road nor New Old Stink Town Road had a street sign, and if either is off on Mass Ave you'll never see a sign for that street either.

Pedestrians have notches in their belts for each time they dodged those drivers. It's an art form scooting out of the way while still allowing the opportunity to slam the side of the car with whatever object is handy and to yell SLOW DOWN AHHS-HOLE at the top of your lungs.

I must admit that I feared being a pedestrian much less in Boston than I do in San Francisco. The drivers in this fair city think brakes are for sissies.

:rofl:

So true. If you couldn't plot something in relation to Mass Ave, you were doomed to wandering like the Flying Dutchman. Fortunately the liquor store, grocery store, bookshops and Chinese restaurants were all right on Mass Ave or in Harvard Square. I wonder if Bartley's Burger Cottage is still there...?

but others usually go with Bay Stater, which is soooo boring, imho.

To foreigners, all Americans are Yankees.

To Americans, only those who live in the North are Yankees.

To Northerners, only New Englanders are Yankees.

New Englanders know that true Yankees are people with English-speaking ancestors in North America (below the 48th parallel) prior to the Revolution.

:shrug:

:shrug:

Beats me to death.

:crazy:

Bay Staters are the only residents not called by their state's name.
I never knew that.

Hi :hi: I'm a Bay Stater!

But the Official List sez no. That apparently settles that.

I'm in Halifax, NS myself--Haligonian, or as Cape Bretoners pronounce it, "Them god damn snotty mainlander bastards".

:hi:

For all the rhetoric about Taxachusetts, taxes are much worse here in Ohio. Don't know about now, but when I let the Bay State in 1991, there was a 5% state income tax with exemptions and a 5% sales tax on everything except food, clothes, periodicals and baby stuff.

Ohio has a state income tax PLUS an local income tax where you live AND where you work. Most towns of residence allow a set-off for income tax paid to the town of employment, but not all. Also, the sales tax varies by county. This county is 6.5% and around Cleveland it is 8.5%. Plus, only food is exempt and only food eaten away from a restaurant. Also, MA has Prop. 2 & one half property tax ceilings. I don't believe they exist here.

Massachusean?

Yes, it's Massachusean. Sorry. No wonder most opt for Bay Stater or simply New Englander.

Yeppers.

ps

they're 'jimmies' not 'sprinkles'

are the real Athols

:shrug:

:bounce:

Even the Italians?

I heard it on Rush

but that strikes me as a syntactical abomination. "Masshole" was used generically. ;)

who live west of Worcester I would prefer West Massachusian. :silly:

:hide:

It ain't the Rockies, but it ain't Kansas neither.

as in "That's a wicked pissah"

They say it all the time

and Algonquins....

You know, the indigenous people, not the colonists.

*cough*

For being a native of Massachusetts...

*cough*