Interesting discussion and perceptions. I was on the phone today with a fellow in Carbondale, IL, and asked him what part of the country he lived in. He immediately said, midwest. I then said, well what about Ohio? After a long pause he said, I guess the midwest but, well, maybe mid-Atlantic. Technically when you google midwest, we pop up as the eastern most state in that region but politically and culturally at least in much of eastern Ohio, I sure don't feel like a Nebraska farmer.

The dialect thing has always been interesting to me. As an OU student, I swore I could always hear a Cleveland accent. Now that I've moved away, I can just as clearly hear a Cincinnati accent--I couldn't when I grew up in that area. I was watching a football game a couple of weeks ago, and bet my wife the color announcer was from Cincinnati, west side to be exact. Don't know if I was correct, but there's no doubting that drawl.

That's my point, Alan. What people in one part of a state think about another part of state may or may not bear much resemblance to what the people in that other part of state think about themselves, which may or may not have much bearing on reality, if such is really identifiable at all in such cases.

Of course, you know why we get W.Va. network TV here in Athens County? Just study the history of WSAZ-TV to find the answer. In the old days when they were Channel 2, not 3, you could get them in Athens with just rabbit ears on your TV, no need for an outside antenna. The only station you could do that with. People got in the habit of watching that channel, especially for news,since they made an effort to cover SEO. Old habits die hard, but they are dying now, but the vestiges of that have kept us in the Huntington-Charleston ADI (I believe there's a new acronym now). I'm hearing that that will change within the next year or so.

From solely an athletics standpoint, that change is going to be awful annoying. TSUN 24/7...... Makes sense to me from a news standpoint.

I could never hear a difference from Cleveland & Columbus kids. I could hear it a little bit with kids from SWO Ohio and SEO in particular. Interesting discussion.

Thanks for the civics lesson OCF. Of course there is little council can do but they can express their opinion to the FCC and our respective state and federal legislators who have a tad more influence than city council.

The TR is a MVL paper. The MVL when it included River View was one of the premier d 2 - 4 conferences in the state.

You're welcome, Alan! ;-)

[I've been giving civics lessons to people for years. At dear old Athens High during my senior year I was ranked in civics in the state in the statewide exams they used to give every spring in a multitude of subjects. About the only accolade I ever got in high school. I was pretty lousy in everything else. I was still finding myself at that age.]

Ah . . . Pittsburgh, the largest city in Appalachia, according to the Feds, but what do they know? ;-)