Dusty, pretty broad statements you make there, but your perceptions are valid, perhaps even correct to a point. CT: we're an hour or two from the mountains...and hour or two from the sea...an hour or two from New York City and an hour or two from Boston, the Cape and the Islands. This is perhaps more correctly described as New England. We are professional at bitching about things. Too damned cold and snowy in the winters and too damned hot in the summers. Too damned muddy in the spring and too damned many leaves to rake in the fall. The gas prices suck,...the taxes suck, the politicians are crooked and if we did get our butts off the couch to vote, we take pride in that very act as being license to bitch about anything connnected with a governing body trying to tell us what to do, how to do it, and what it will cost us. We are not really that grumpy, conceited, or egotistical...we just can act that way...but we are New Englanders and we love it here.