Batter up...
Batter up...
September 12, 2006
While filling out some paperwork, one of the department secretaries asked me to confirm that MN is the correct abbreviation for Minnesota. As I thought I about the other possibilities, it occurred to me that every other choice (where the choices are defined as the first letter of the state followed by a second letter occurring somewhere in the state's name) is the abbreviation for another state. (MI = Michigan, ME = Maine, MS = Mississippi, MO = Missouri, MT = Montana, MA = Massachusetts) This is equally true of Maine and Montana, and no other states.
Of course, this bit of knowledge is completely useless. That's why it's called trivia.
Posted by rhode at September 12, 2006 03:21 PMI remember realizing some time back that the M states give an implied ordering/grouping, depending on how you look at it:
Tier 1 (second letter): MA, MI
Tier 2 (third letter): MN, MS
Tier 3 (fourth letter): MT
Tier 4 (fifth letter): MO, ME
Tier 5 (eighth letter): MD
Actually, I suppose you could also group on the reason that the letter seems to have been chosen:
First vowel: MA, MI
End of first syllable: MN, MS
Beginning of second syllable: MO, MT
End of word: MD, ME
Either way, Minnesota is a second-tier state behind Massachusetts and Michigan. Way to make both your school choices in first-class M states!
And another grouping could be:
beginning of first syllable -
all
end of first syllable -
MN, MS, ME
middle of first syllable -
MA, MI
beginning of second syllable -
MT
middle of second/last syllable -
MO
end of second/last syllable -
MD
which means E has chosen second tier states to go to school. Schools including MIT which apparently don't deal with syllables as Missouri would be Mis·sou·ri.
Posted by: russ at September 14, 2006 09:04 AM