New York, New Jersey, and New Hampshire have all been with us for well over two hundred years. When are they going to drop the "New" part? It isn't necessary for them to become "Old," but New? Give me a break! If any state deserves to be called new, shouldn't in be Hawaii?

And there is that other problem. I'm talking about those same-name states like the Carolinas, the Dakotas and the Virginias. North Carolina is down south and South Dakota is up north. And if West Virginia is west, then plain old Virginia, should be East Virgina by default.

And then there are Southern California and Northern California. They are about as different as two neighboring states can possibly be, yet we still keep pretending that they are one state.

The Michigans present a similar problem. Look at them on the map. I think we should call them U.P Michigan and Mitten Michigan. That way we could have 51 states without all that annexation mess.

Even annexation has it's merits. Thank of all the problems we could have avoided it we annexed Mexico. We could change New Mexico to North Mexico, and make Mexico a state called South Mexico. Or we could have combined it with Texas and put the names together to have Texico. No, I think that name is already taken.
Howard