West Virginia Is Not A City In Virginia Brad...

[CoolBreeze]

This just in from the Allstate Sugar Bowl featuring Michigan vs. Virginia Tech: In tomorrow night's Orange Bowl, the Clemson Tigers will "take on another team from the state of Virginia: West Virginia."

http://deadspin.com/5872860/no-brad-nes ... n-virginia

[lastone]

WV has had this problem for a very long time. About a decade ago now, an Arazona trooper arrested a WV family on vacation for driving without a registration or a valid license. The trooper said "There is no State of West Virginia". And yes, they were jailed !

In the 80s I lived in Arlington, Burke and Springfield, and I learned quickly not to mention WV for there it is considered you are talking about western Virginia. (Think Abingdon and Wise)

I have always hoped we would promote ourselves as a state and not just a vacation location. How many times did I hear "Oh, that's where they jump off that bridge...in VIRGINIA" when I was assigned to NWC, Ridgecrest, California? Don't ask.

Anyone in radio knows what a little 'self promotion' can do. WV just won't do it.

[EZ103.3FM]

Sometimes there's a benefit to this.

We drove to New Orleans several years ago and I got a parking ticket in the French Quarter while attending Mass at the St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. When I looked at the ticket, I saw the person who issued it had put in my license plate number correctly but had entered the state as 'VA' instead of 'WV'. I threw it away, since they'll never find me....and I've never heard anything about it.

[Schaffer]

The same thing happened to me in Windsor Canada. I tossed the ticket, and have crossed the boarder more than a dozen times since with no problem. At least Canada is another country (kinda), nobody in the U.S. has an excuse.

[Jay Nunley]

In all of my travels in the radio world almost every time someone asked where I was from and I told them West Virginia they would inevitably ask "Anywhere near Richmond (or Roanoke or Virginia Beach)".

I would then try to explain that West Virginia is a different state. About half would say "Oh yeah." The other half would just blink and stare.

I have proposed two solutions to this. Both of them have been roundly rejected.

I suggested to Senator Manchin that he introduce a bill to force Virginia to change its name to "East Virginia" or a much more amusing "East West Virginia".

I'm not sure he took me seriously.

When they were doing the contest to choose a new state slogan I suggested it should be "Fuck Virginia."

My flawless and unassailable argument for this slogan is in four parts.

1. It would be funny.

2. It denotes an overall attitude West Virginians have about those Old Dominion plantation fops and their stupid state.

3. It describes our state's origin in two words.

4. The media driven national controversy over the slogan would increase awareness of West Virginia infinitely and would differentiate the state in the minds of even the monosyllabic, slack-jawed, Jersey Shore watching, troglodytes that populate our once great culture.


Just imagine the border signs on the interstates...

Welcome To West Virginia
Fuck Virginia!
Earl Ray Tomblin, Governor


You all know I'm right about this.

[Greg Goodfellow]

One original name proposed early on of course was 'Kanawha,' which Tom Brokaw once famously referred to as 'KEN uh whuh.'

With our 150th birthday in 2013, we gotta do something big...Jay may be on to something. Just think-Jay as governor-the "Chris Christie" of West Virginia, an in-your-face kinda guy.

[AmpedNow]

I lived in Northern VA for several years and sadly I have alsso experienced this ignorance of WV even being a state. Others seriously asked if we had indoor plumbing, electricity, and paved roads. Many also thought that we were all Klan members. This is no excuse for one of the supposedly most educated areas in the country.

I've also been to other areas of the country including Texas, California, and Washington and everyone I talked to knew that WV is its own state.

I guess proximity does not always equal familiarity.

[Tom Taggart]

Just East Coast arrogance. There's Bos-Wash (which includes northern Virginia), there's the west--aka Left coast, and maybe Chicago.

The rest of the country is a sea of ignorant knuckle-draggers, with isolated specs of humanity trying to bring enlightenment to the unwashed masses. (Places like Ann Arbor and Madison).