Globe Corner Blogs

State By State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

I have never known the correct word for someone who lives in Massachusetts and I have never really bothered to find the official name. Is it Massachusian… Massachusettite? The only thing I have ever heard was not very flattering and is something usually yelled at people driving on the Mass Pike.  When asked, I usually start to trip over the word and then just say, “I live in Boston, but I will always be a Washingtonian at heart.”

Yesterday, I was checking out a book new to our shelves: State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. It is a compilation of 50 writers writing about 50 states with the lofty goal of “explaining America to Americans.” Inspired by the WPA American Guide series of the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s, the editors of this project commissioned 50 writers, cartoonists, a cook, and a musician to write an essay about their home or adopted home state. (Washington DC is covered in the afterword.) The list of contributers is impressive and includes Dave Eggers (Illinois), Ha  Jin (Georgia), Susan Orlean (Ohio), Anthony Bourdain (New Jersey), and Carrie Brownstein (Washington State).

Each essay is preceeded by some general information about the state (which is great for trivia nights at the pub), such as the state’s capital, nickname, official flower, geographic center, and what to call the residents. That is where I discovered the answer to my question, and now I can say with some confidence that “I am a Bay Stater!”.