२ ऑगस्ट, २०२२

"Nothing makes a data journalist’s heart skip a beat quite like the word 'Midwest'... It’s a concrete geographic construct linked to an ephemeral cultural one."

"In Airbnb, we’d stumbled on an ideal data set for drawing that elusive line between culture and geography. More importantly, once we’d looked at more than half a million Airbnb listings and built a database powerful enough to answer 'Where is the Midwest?' we could use it to answer a much more difficult follow-up: 'What is the Midwest?' What cultural touchstones make it different from the rest of the country? .... By this measure, Iowa is the most Midwestern state in the union, followed by Indiana and Wisconsin.... By this measure, the most Midwestern thing on Earth is the walleye, a drab but delicious freshwater fish whose primeval bulging eyes and snaggled teeth would look at home in one of those Nebraska fossil beds.... Two of the next three most-Midwestern words, 'Heartland' and 'Lutheran,' seem like gimmes.... 'Conservatory' and 'orchestra' seem odd, but Google Trends confirms that both are unusually popular in Midwestern states. If you think you know why, let us know! Three others are probably artifacts of the sort of property- and hospitality-focused Midwestern English you’d expect from an Airbnb listing — 'rehabbed' for renovated, 'blacktop' for asphalt and 'supper' for dinner. Several other freshwater fish join walleye on the list, including bluegill and the bass varieties of smallmouth and largemouth...."

Well... it's an interesting idea — using the words found in Airbnb to figure something out. But the glaring deficiency is that Airbnb is aimed at outsiders: Why would they want to travel here? You're not going to see why we of the Midwest are here and what the place — as a giant whole or the little part where any given one of us lives — means to us. You're not going to find out what it means to the people — my mother or my sons, for example — who grew up in the Midwest, but went elsewhere as adults with the power to choose where to live.

What does it mean to me? I had a mother who grew up in a midwestern city (Ann Arbor), but I grew up on the east coast (Delaware and New Jersey), went to my mother's home city for college, left for a while (to New York), and then went back (to Madison ) — went back 2 or 3 or 4 more times (depending on how you count). And by "back," I don't mean for a vacation. I mean to live there as my home. I really want to live in the American Midwest, and I am capable of moving and living anywhere. I have actively chosen it over and over, throughout my life.

But for outsiders, looking for a vacation, sure, the fish are going to be very important! The fish give you wacky "data journalists" something to nerd out over. Where there are data, fascinating linkable articles can be written. The data journalists are biting this morning, and so — I have the self-awareness to confess — are the bloggers.

६० टिप्पण्या:

rcocean म्हणाले...

Ah so what is the midwest? I'd put ND, SD, Kansas, and Nebraska in "The west" where the buffalo roam. i'd put kentucky and MO as "Border states" Pennyslvyannia is "The east. So, everything else, north of the Ohio river and east of the plains states is "The midwest".

But is Chicago the "midwest"? Nope, I'd say its part of the Urban NE, plopped down in the midwest.

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

I could never figure out how Ohio was considered to be in the Midwest.

The OWH calls Nebraska, Iowa, SD, KS and MO the Midlands. It never really caught on.

Nebraska is sui generis. Half the state is farming while the other (and better) half is ranching. Cornhuskers and cowboys. Weird.

Jaq म्हणाले...

Bowfins look like they belong in a fossil bed, walleye look like modern fish, I would never call them “drab” either. It sounds like somebody who never saw a wild fish before looked at a picture and just riffed randomly.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

One word: Cheese.

No, two words: Cheese and Pastry.

No, three words: Cheese, Pastry, and Steak.

No...

Ficta म्हणाले...

When "Professor" Harold Hill (aka "The Music Man") is trying to flim-flam Iowans, he claims to be a graduate of "Gary Conservatory, Gold Medal, Class of Ought 5". So the Midwestern respect for conservatories is a well established trope.

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

That’s my Middle West…the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark….I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house….I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all – Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.

Yeah. What happened to all that?

tim maguire म्हणाले...

These ads show you what the people who made them think other people like. Which might be why you see orchestra when the people who wrote them more likely look to the summer pops series for their culture. Or maybe airbnb listers skew left, which now that I think of it, is probably true--it's not a cross-section of the community.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"The country I come from/Is called the Midwest" — Bob Dylan

Two-eyed Jack म्हणाले...

There was a time when Chicago (and Evanston!) was the Northwest, Cincinatti was the Midwest, and San Francisco was the Far West.

Enigma म्हणाले...

Based on the words on highway road signs, I know I'm in the Midwest because there will be McDonalds at 5 freeway exits in a row. Plus, matching Culvers restaurants in larger towns selling burgers, seasonal walleye, and frozen custard.

More broadly, if the restaurants emphasize beef, beef, and more beef then you know you are somewhere in the Midwest.

rehajm म्हणाले...

it's an interesting idea — using the words found in Airbnb to figure something out. But the glaring deficiency is that Airbnb is aimed at outsiders: Why would they want to travel here? You're not going to see why we of the Midwest are here and what the place — as a giant whole or the little part where any given one of us lives — means to us.

This nails it. It is an examination of what counts to Airbnb tourists. So, wrongheaded* but that doesn't mean it isn't interesting data. I'd be looking for Walleye on my trip, too...

*Disturbing this data twit didn't see the distinction. What have we done to our children? They're like those cats raised in boxes with horizontal stripes...

J Melcher म्हणाले...

Gary, Indiana. Gary Conservatory of Music, class of ought-five. As explained to the fine citizens of River City, Iowa.



Nothing odd about 'Conservatory'.

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

Why on Earth would you call a walleye 'drab'? They shimmer!

khematite म्हणाले...

When I think "Midwest," it conjures up for me (a New Yorker) the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical "State Fair," set in Iowa in the 1940s. Also, Sinclair Lewis' novels "Main Street" and "Babbitt."

Our state fair is a great state fair,
Don't miss it, don't even be late.
It's dollars to donuts
That our state fair
Is the best state fair in our state.

Kevin म्हणाले...

The fish give you wacky "data journalists" something to nerd out over.

What is a vacation if not for the decidedly-different Instaphotos?

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

Why does Midwest make this guy’s heart skip a beat?

Because those are people he feels free to look down on and to exercise his bigotry upon.

khematite म्हणाले...

Blogger Ann Althouse said...
"The country I come from/Is called the Midwest" — Bob Dylan

Preceded by the typical Midwestern modesty (or is it a regional inferiority complex?) of:

"Oh, my name it means nothin'"

First Tenor म्हणाले...

In the energy business, we refer to the Midwest as the MidContinent of MidCon. The government calls it PADD 2. PADD is Petroleum Administration for Defense District, leftover from WW II, where you had significant sources of oil production linked to refining capacity.

PADD I is the East Coast. PADD 2 is the MidCon. PADD 3 is Gulf Coast (sans Florida). PADD 4 is the Rockies and PADD 5 is the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska.

Omaha1 म्हणाले...

To me it seems like only half of Nebraska & Kansas are "midwestern", the western halves are "western". Also South Dakota & North Dakota don't seem midwestern, except for maybe the southern part of South Dakota. The northern parts of Minnesota and Michigan (as well as North Dakota) seem more like the "great white north". Ohio should also be cut in half, with only the western half being "midwestern".

Ernest म्हणाले...

We moved 16 months ago from north of Chicago to Lexington KY (to be near grandchildren). Kentucky might be a border state, but it does not feel as “midwestern” as our time in IL. However, there is a Culvers 10 minutes from us. Yay!

Michael K म्हणाले...

I grew up in Chicago and left when I was 18. No desire to go back. I visit once in a while, less so since it became a shithole city. The blacks run it with their usual efficiency.

tommyesq म्हणाले...

But the glaring deficiency is that Airbnb is aimed at outsiders

Not sure that is really true. AirBnB and VRBO homes are often marketed to people from the same state or neighboring states, often to some local attraction like a lake. Particularly in the Midwest, where there aren't the big draws for far-away people like the Rockies, Grand Canyon or the oceans.

Ice Nine म्हणाले...

Born and raised in Iowa - even worked as a carry out at the Hy-Vee - and we always called it "dinner." The first time, and about the only time, I heard the word "conservatory" was when my Iowa cousin got accepted at the *Boston* Conservatory of Music. It's not a big Midwestern word in my, ahem, expert opinion. Walleye...yum; not very exciting to catch but sure nice to eat.

After med school I went to California for the excitement and adventure, and never returned to Iowa. I found nice people in CA of course but it wasn't a near-universal thing like it is in Iowa/Midwest. I could always spot Midwesterners out here in CA, and most MWers in CA will tell you the same. Its a bit slow back there but it is, as they say, a great place to be from.

Oh Yea म्हणाले...

Dave Begley said...
I could never figure out how Ohio was considered to be in the Midwest.

Most likely relates back to the Northwest Territories which became Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota. Ohio could be split between Appalachia (southeast) Midwest (western), Urban NE (Cleveland, Akron/Canton) and the rest of the state is some sort of transition area.

Recently had a Pittsburg native argue online that it was also Midwest primarily because he didn't want to be associated with the eastern section of Pennsylvania. He was crushed. While Ohio may be marginal, everyone agreed that the Ohio/Pennsylvania boarder was the eastern edge of the Midwest.

Temujin म्हणाले...

Growing up in Michigan, we always considered ourselves more of the 'mid-east' than the Midwest. We were kind of a mix between the solid Midwest- Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Indiana- and the eastern midsection- Ohio into PA. And apparently our fish of note in Michigan were also a bit different. Walleye, sure. Also pike. But a lot of Lake Superior whitefish, lake perch, and coho salmon, rainbow trout, lake sturgeon, and when in early spring, smelt.

My thought was that a typical Midwesterner would not bother to list their home on Airbnb, but then I could be wrong. I sure would not try to glean my knowledge of Mainers from reading Airbnb. Nor would I try to learn about Carolinians from reading Airbnb. You have to go to a place, hang out, meet the people. Live there for awhile to get to know a place and have an understanding of it.

Coastal people have forever looked upon Midwesterners as some sort of cute pet. Something to smile at and think, How quaint.". The reality is that it's just different. Not quaint. It's their way of life. I'm a huge fan of people in the Southeast, and I've lived here now for about half my life. But I still consider myself a Detroiter, a Midwesterner. And I can relate to those people as much as any place in the country. A couple of weeks ago I was in the Indianapolis area visiting some family. My impression upon descending onboard the plane was that it looked like the Midwest. And the people there were like the people I grew up with, though a bit more Hoosier than we were in Michigan.

Paddy O म्हणाले...

speaking as a 6th generation Californian who spent 4 years in the midwest for college, the bigger issue really is more of a way of viewing the world, which is different than in the West, NE, SE or S. Much more of a "this is the way things are done because this is how it's been done" attitude. Different type of humor and perspective on who is influential.

I'll admit to being very biased when I hear of a midwesterner coming to take a leadership role in California. It almost never works out. In a lot of ways, other than language, they're a lot more "foreigners" here than immigrants from other countries from the South or West (Asia) of us. I think this is likely due a lot to the strong Scandinavian and German influences.

Colorado and Idaho tend to be more West, but SD and ND are definitely midwest in culture/worldview. Montana and Wyoming folks are somewhere in between (west mid-west?)

Laurie म्हणाले...

Interestingly enough... just yesterday my daughter texted a screenshot of a story from ROCA News talking about "...flooding in the Midwest" the went on to say the "most deaths have been reported in Kentucky, however, Missouri, West Virginia, and Ohio have also been affected." Her text said she didn't realize KY was considered in the Midwest. I tend to think most people would not describe KY as Midwest.

Maynard म्हणाले...

But is Chicago the "midwest"? Nope, I'd say its part of the Urban NE, plopped down in the midwest.

Part of living in Chicago (where I grew up) is where you drive to visit relatives and/or vacation. For me, it was mostly Wisconsin, but also Indiana and Iowa.

That is the Midwest.

I know an LA lawyer who has trouble finding staff. If someone comes from the Midwest she will immediately hire them because she knows they have a Midwestern work ethic. It must be the legacy of generations of farmers and factory workers.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

'I could never figure out how Ohio was considered to be in the Midwest.'

I think it makes sense if you are an Easterner living in 1790 or so...

JAORE म्हणाले...

Please explain why "primeval bulging eyes and snaggled teeth ... [resembling something from] fossil beds" equates to "drab".

Magson म्हणाले...

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs in the 80's. What we were taught then is that the Midwest comprised the 5 states that used to be considered "northwestern Virginia" -- Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois (home of Northwestern University...), and Wisconsin. The "flat states" west of the Mississippi river were "The Great Plains" or "the Plains States."

Currently, the vogue seems to be to lump those 2 areas together and call them all "the Midwest" anymore.

wildswan म्हणाले...

I see the Midwest as defined by "civility bullshit." Civility, yes. And civility bullshit when things go wrong in whatever way. In NYC it would just be bullshit - candor or contempt. In the South it would be "steel magnolia". It's sweeter in the South than "civility," a magnolia, not a begonia. Unless, sweetie, you get the steel magnolia. In Wisconsin you get lakes, fishing, canoeing amid civility (and them city folks just cain't pick out civility bullshit from civility, seems, so it's all good.) Come to Wisconsin and vanish up the lazy river at sunrise. Photoshop yourself a walleye if you need to send an adequately exciting report back to digital land.

rhhardin म्हणाले...

I've never been tempted to attend, but the Ohio State Fair has a cow sculpted out of butter, which is proof of midwest.

Narr म्हणाले...

German Lutherans retaining the old country attitude to music and education? Knock me over with a feather.

mezzrow म्हणाले...

I lived in the Midwest for two years of grad school in one of those famous Midwestern conservatories that are attached to their large state universities. I liked it, I liked them, and I like going back. I got to know a lot of people from all over the world who went to the Midwest for the education. They got that and more. It was real value for money, and that mattered for me.

I'm in Florida, where everyone is from somewhere else, except for all the people who grew up here with me. We tend to hang out with each other a lot and talk about everybody else and how we don't care how those folks did things where they came from.

We love people who don't want to move here.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed म्हणाले...

It is hard to define the midwest in terms of state boundaries, but that is what we tend to do.

I prefer a different test:
1. Are you anywhere in the central US?
2. Are the main landscape areas mostly flat or low, rolling hills?
3. Are the rural landscapes mainly filled with mostly corn and/or soybeans?
4. Are the livestock mainly cattle and/or hogs?

If you answer yes to all four, you are probably in the American midwest.

Howard म्हणाले...

Certainly sounds better than American Siberia or the rust belt.

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

Remember last months TikToks? Northeasterners are neither kind nor nice. Southerners are kind but not nice. Middlewesterners are not kind, but are nice. I forget what Californians are supposed to be.

Scott Fitzgerald's and Nick Carraway's Midwest was a lot more Eastern than the actual region was. It may have been just Fitzgerald's inferiority complex about not being an upper class Easterner, but in general there was a feeling a century ago that the Midwest was coming into its own. Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser and others put the region on the literary map in a big way. What happened? Was it just that literary "renaissances" never last very long?

gadfly म्हणाले...

rhhardin said...
I've never been tempted to attend, but the Ohio State Fair has a cow sculpted out of butter, which is proof of the midwest.

Every winter Saint Paul holds it's annual Vulcan Snow Sculpture and Snow Maze show inside the Minnesota State Fairgrounds' Vulcan Snow Park. Unbelievable art on display for all of us Midwesterners.

Rocco म्हणाले...

Dave Begley said...
I could never figure out how Ohio was considered to be in the Midwest.

Because the founding and history of Ohio is closely intertwined with its neighboring states that were part of the old Northwest Territory.

Rocco म्हणाले...

Magson said...
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs in the 80's. What we were taught then is that the Midwest comprised the 5 states that used to be considered "northwestern Virginia" -- Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois (home of Northwestern University...), and Wisconsin.

That's wrong: Those states were all part of the Northwest Territory and never connected to Virginia.

On the other hand, Kentucky started out as the western part of Virginia, and Tennessee started out as the western part of North Carolina.

n.n म्हणाले...

urbane pretense

iowan2 म्हणाले...

Most likely already corrected. The Butter Cow is Iowa. Norma 'Duffy' Lyon, Toledo IA, was the long time sculptor, but the baton has passed to her apprentice of 15 years, Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines.

It is not just a cow, but a specific cow.(not sure how it is selected) They also do several other butter sculptures, celebrities and current events figures.

OOPS!! Ohio actually had the first butter cow, 1903. Iowa not until 1911.

Curious George म्हणाले...

Walleye drab? Their European relative Zander are sort of drab, and maybe out of Lake Erie where they are grey, but in most lakes/rivers they are a beautiful gold green. And the certainly don't have snaggled teeth, they have round pointy teeth, like a cat.

They are sometimes referred to as walleyed pike, but they are part of the perch family.

who-knew म्हणाले...

The geography can get fuzzy and not everyone defines it the same. To me it is everything north of the Ohio and the states across the Mississippi from there (but I occasionally have doubts about Missouri, probably because of their slave state legacy). I can't speak for the bigger cities but growing up in Green Bay there was very little distance between the factory owners and the factory workers, and that's something that seems very Midwestern to me.

Curious George म्हणाले...

While the most targeted fish in Wisconsin is most likely the walleye, the official state fish is the Muskellunge, or as it is commonly known, the Muskie (or musky).

Christopher B म्हणाले...

There's a lot of overlap in the 'Middle Border' to use Hamlin Garland's term. I was more parochial in my younger days as an Iowan but as I've traveled and moved farther east and south (Louisville KY now with a son in Ohio) I've come to accept Ohio as part of the Midwest, also including Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. You can do some subdivisions among them like the Great Lakes States (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin) or Upper Midwest (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa) but all share largely the same character of growing out of the Old Northwest Territory, divided from the East by the Appalachians and the South by the mighty Ohio, and being solidly part of the Union rather than Confederate or neutral. I draw the line at including Missouri, as it is more South and Great Plains.

The Dakotas and Nebraska, along with Kansas and Oklahoma, always seem more 'Great Plains' than Midwest, with Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona being the Rocky Mountain states, even if the eastern parts of the latter are are as much Great Plains as the former.

Texas always seems to stand on its own or somewhat merge into the South.

Floris म्हणाले...

Missouri is considered a border state by Missourians. North of the Missouri river is the midwest. South of the river is The South. Also, St. Louis is associated with the Eastern U.S. while Kansas City is a western city.

JMS म्हणाले...

When I was growing up in the 1960s, my state's tourism slogan was “Nebraska…where the West begins.” The Midwest was Iowa to Ohio. I still live in the middle of the state and I don’t have to drive very far west before farms give way to 3,000-acre ranches and rising elevations, definitely more "West" than "Midwest." In the 1800s Nebraska Territory was part of the "Wild West" with Buffalo Bill Cody considering North Platte his hometown and Wild Bill Hickok living and working here for many years.

Britannica's definition: “Midwest, also called Middle West or North Central States, region, northern and central United States, lying midway between the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains and north of the Ohio River and the 37th parallel. The Midwest, as defined by the federal government, comprises the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Actually composed of two regions, the Northwest Territory, or the Old Northwest, and the Great Plains, the Midwest has become more an idea than a region: an area of immense diversity but somehow consciously representative of a national average.”

Narr म्हणाले...

The Midwest is, among other things, the heartland of the USA's greatest natural resource: the largest contiguous expanse of prime agricultural land on the globe.

That we have frittered away much of the advantage derived from that is less remarked on than our similar waste of the energy underneath and adjacent.

Fred Drinkwater म्हणाले...

The AirBnB database and this resulting "analysis" is a textbook example of GIGO. Or, perhaps, the "data journalist" author is unable to distinguish between ad-speak and useful facts. (On second thought, please replace the "Or" above with "And". Thank you.)

Deirdre Mundy म्हणाले...

In terms of Conservatory and Orchestra, the Midwest is the last place in the country where "Middlebrow Culture" still exists and is celebrated.

Clyde म्हणाले...

When I was 8, we moved from Texas to St. Joseph, Missouri. We lived there for five years, then moved to metro Kansas City, where I lived (on both sides of the state line) until I was 21. Kansas City bills itself as "The Heart of America," and is definitely part of the Midwest. St. Joseph's claim to fame was being the eastern terminus of the Pony Express back in the 19th Century. When you went west at that time, you really were heading across an unsettled land until you got to California. St. Joe was the edge of civilization.

Mikey NTH म्हणाले...

Michigan is also there if you want diversity geographically and culturally. And water. 4 out of 5 Great Lakes approve of Michigan.

Narr म्हणाले...

Memphis was for a time "The Gateway to the Southwest." What we would today call the Old Southwest, before that great Tennesseean J K Polk was president.

Jay Vogt म्हणाले...

I'm sure there's a lot that's right and is interesting in that article - and it is a clever way to look at something. I'll give them that. However, when I see within the headline or in the introductory paragraph the phrase, "According to Data", I get "Sick to my Stomach"

Jay Vogt म्हणाले...

Clyde said..."Kansas City bills itself as "The Heart of America," and is definitely part of the Midwest. St. Joseph's claim to fame was being the eastern terminus of the Pony Express"

I like both towns: KC is a good Heart of America or . . . . anywhere, I'd think. We travelled to it often enough from Iowa and/or Minnesota. To me it always had a touch of the south to it. You could see it in the way people dressed and the slight tilt of their accents. I don't know St. Johns quite as well, but it always had a nice small town vibe to it and some gorgeous old mansions. Probably loosing that a bit as time goes on.

Rollo म्हणाले...

The Midwest is corn (and hogs and dairy). The Rocky Mountain West is cattle (and lumber and mining). What's in-between (wheat country?) is overlooked and doesn't get much respect.

I wouldn't call Pittsburgh Midwestern, but there's definitely a difference between Greater Philadelphia and the rest of Pennsylvania. Buffalo also seems more like Detroit or Cleveland or Toronto than New York City or the Hudson River Valley.

rastajenk म्हणाले...

When the college football world starts re-arranging itself soon, there won't be a need for any of these arbitrary distinctions. There will just be Big 10, SEC, and the Big Whatever the leftovers combining to create.

MayBee म्हणाले...

Take note journalists: None of these descriptions from Midwesterners say they are in "The Rustbelt". Stop saying that about us.