Sunday, March 11, 2007

Rhode Island, Massachusetts

Here's a story to send to Mark Patinkin.

For those not living in Rhode Island, Mr. Patinkin is a Providence Journal columnist who has written some tongue-in-cheek books about Rhode Island that allude to, among other things, the lack of awareness of the general US/world population regarding RI's status as a STATE (rather than, say, as a part of New York or Massachusetts).

I had never experienced this until today. I bought a Cingular pay-as-you-go phone this afternoon, and when I went to their website to activate it, I discovered that Rhode Island isn't listed as a state in their drop-down menu! I had to enter my city as "Providence Rhode Island" and pick Massachusetts as my state before the system would let me continue. What gives??

3 comments:

The A.D.D. Knitter said...

Aww, such is life in Little Rhodie!

I am a Brown grad and lived there off and on for many years--I miss it, weirdness and all...

Anonymous said...

That is bizarre and downright inexcusable. I say raise hell and demand money back. Though it does make a pretty unbelievable story.

As of now, the comments on this post are 100 percent from Brown U. alumni. :)

knitseashore said...

That is truly bizarre. But considering the map skills of the general public, not surprising.

I'm ruining the comments now because I didn't go to Brown. I did go to SCSU in CT, so at least I'm from New England, and know RI is a neighboring state. :)