Sunday, October 5, 2008

New England State Nicknames

Nutmeg
Do you know the nickname of your state? Your neighboring states? Didn’t think so. While in New England this week, we got to thinking about state nicknames. The “official” nicknames for some New England states are: Connecticut the Consitution State, Maine the Pine Tree State, Massachusetts the Bay State, New Hamsphire the Granite State, Rhode Island the Ocean State, and Vermont the Green Mountain State.

An unofficial nickname for Connecticut is “Nutmeg State” which always baffled me. It’s not because nutmeg (Myristica fragans) was grown there. The common explanation is that shrewd peddlers would sell small carved nobs of wood shaped like nutmeg to unsuspecting customers wanting a little something from the spice islands. Try grinding that for your pumpkin pie. [ref]

6 comments:

  1. New Jersey is most definitely not part of New England.

    ReplyDelete
  2. new jersey is in new england

    ReplyDelete
  3. For the record, I removed New Jersey the Garden State.

    ReplyDelete
  4. New England is actually contains New Jersey according to every New England book I could find.

    ReplyDelete
  5. There must be a lobby on getting New Jersey into New England!? Kidding :-) I'm going by what is written here - as one of a few sources consulted - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England. Do you have other sources you can share that say otherwise?

    ReplyDelete

All comments go through a moderation process. Even though it may not look like the comment was accepted, it probably was. Check back in a day if you asked a question. Thanks!