From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hp-pcd!bobm
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Yes, Virginia, There is a N. Dakota - (nf)
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.584
Posted: Thu Jan 13 18:02:34 1983
Received: Sat Jan 15 05:06:48 1983

#N:hp-pcd:6400010:000:2479
hp-pcd!bobm    Jan 13 13:10:00 1983



	Alright, folks. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (the same
	people who counted a million more women than men who are 
	separated from their spouses - does net.singles know about
	this?) in this week's Newsweek, not only is there a North 
	Dakota, but it also has the lowest incidence of syphilis
	in the U.S. (0.3 cases per 100,000) and the least crime.
	According to my atlas, there are some 660K+ inhabitants of
	the state, and according to my calculator that means there
	were 2 cases of syphilis (reported, I'm sure!) in the state
	in 1980. This leads to an interesting contradiction:
	a quick glance at the map shows ND to be located (thought
	to be located??) in a very cold part of the states. This
	explains the low crime rate right off the bat - who wants
	to sneak around in the freezing snow at night when the whole
	place might not be real anyway? I'd sure rather stay at home 
	in my own safe little reality and try to keep warm in the 
	best possible way. Which brings us to the contradiction:
	surely if everybody was at home keeping warm, there would be
	a much higher incidence of genital flu! Now, either the natives
	are well-informed about such things, and make an effort to
	avoid needless complications (Bravo for them if that is the
	case - after all, practice makes perfect!) or it is indeed
	true that ND does not exist. Since the former cannot be 
	demonstrated (after all - nobody yet has ever said that they
	have actually *BEEN* to ND, have they?) the latter must be true.
	Q.E.D North Dakota does not exist and is a figment of our
	imagination, as well as the imagination of the U.S. Census Bureau.

	Seriously, one of my housemates in college was from ND (at
	least he had ND plates on his car), so I'm at least 50% convinced
	that there is such a place. Of course, he did say that nothing
	ever happened there - all of the good life (i.e., any social
	event taking place when the temperature was over 0 degrees -
	that usually meant the May-September timeframe!) was in Minnesota.
	So I'm still not convinced...

					Bob May
					...!hplabs!hp-pcd!bobm

   P.S. net.games.trivia addicts might want to see this issue of Newsweek.
        There are some fascinating nuggets of gold in there, including
        the fact that there are only 6 (count 'em - six!) Samoans
        in Arkansas and that Ohio is the most "normal" state,
        demographically speaking. I've always wanted to see that
        family that has 1.2 kids and 2.4 cars!