Fifty States in Ten Minutes

1. Lady Cooper
   March 3rd, 2007 at 10:07 pm

   42. Not bad for a Canadian! I wonder if they made one of these with the 13 Canadian provinces and territories, in say, 5 minutes, how would Americans do?

2. Tyler
   March 3rd, 2007 at 10:35 pm

   We would do badly.

   I don't think speling ought too count. I'm not so good at it.

   On second thought, maybe that's why...

3. Miss Cellania
   March 3rd, 2007 at 10:37 pm

   When I read your comment, I couldn't resist trying. I wrote down all but one off the top of my head. Why have I never heard of Nunavut? Did it used to be called soemthing else?

4. Jake
   March 3rd, 2007 at 10:43 pm

   What's Canada?

5. Mike
   March 3rd, 2007 at 10:50 pm

   Spelling and keyboarding were the biggest parts of the challenge. 'Massachusettes' just doesn't flow off the fingertips for me! Otherwise, got 'em with 4:07 left on the clock. I'll probably try for better times now!

   Thanks for sharing it!

6. chase
   March 3rd, 2007 at 11:41 pm

   I missed Mississippi.

7. Keith
   March 4th, 2007 at 12:07 am

   We had to learn a song in fourth grade called "Fifty Nifty United States." Part of the lyrics included singing the names of the states in alphabetical order. We'd have contests to see who could do it the fastest. 17 seconds was good. 15 was great and some intrepid souls got it down to 13. Even with the remnant of that childhood ability, it still took me two and a half minutes to type all the names in.

8. Miss Cellania
   March 4th, 2007 at 1:25 am

   Oy, I have a third and a fourth grader, and I've listened to that song more than I care to admit. My kids were shocked that I never had to learn the states in alphabetical order. I told him, no I learned them in GEOGRAPHICAL order! They were impressed.

9. Andy
   March 4th, 2007 at 2:08 am

   How odd—I too would have finished it in under four minutes if I remembered Nevada sooner.

10. Rebecca
    March 4th, 2007 at 8:51 am

    Darn! 49- missed Idaho.... just have to try again I guess.

11. Tim
    March 4th, 2007 at 10:06 am

    I'm a Canadian who got all but 3: Nebraska, Connecticut and, inexplicably, Colorado. Still, I was pretty proud of that.

12. Tim
    March 4th, 2007 at 10:11 am

    Also, to answer your question Miss Cellania, Nunavut became a territory when it split from the Northwest Territories. This occurred relatively recently (about 1999).

13. Lady Cooper
    March 4th, 2007 at 10:48 am

    Btw, there's a song that American kids have to learn to name the states? I think that's a sign that you have too many of them.

    As for Canada, we could always use the end of the "Toronto Sucks" song to name provinces:

    Oh...I hate Newfoundland because they talk so weird and Prince Edward Island is too small. Nova Scotia's dumb because it's the name of a bank, New Brunswick doesn't have a good mall. Quebec is revolting and it makes me mad, Ontario sucks, Ontario sucks. Manitoba's population density is 1.9 people per square kilometre! Isn't that stupid?! Saskatchewan is boring and the people are old, and as for the territories, they're too cold! And the only good thing about the province of British Columbia is that it's right next to us! 'Cuz Alberta doesn't suck, but Edmonton does!

14. Zoe
    March 4th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    Easy- in elementary school we sang "Fifty nifty United States" too!

15. liz
    March 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm

    d'oh couldn't remember delware for the last 6 minutes.

16. Anita
    March 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm

    Nice find Miss C. I got 49 in 3 minutes, and spent 7 minutes trying to figure out the last one. Missed Kansas. Oops.

17. Mike
    March 4th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    Miss C: I, too, go through my mental map to name the states. That map was burned into my mind thanks to that Milton Bradley jigsaw puzzle map of the states I had as a kid. I was fascinated to see how my recollection of that order was disrupted, not by the countdown clock, rather by watching my correct responses flow into the alphabetical list.

18. sandra
    March 4th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

    I'm 38 years old and can remember "Fifty Nifty United States" up to Ohiiiiiiiio! I typed those alphabetically in 2.5 minutes, but then struggled with the remaing states for another 6 min.

19. john
    March 4th, 2007 at 7:19 pm

    couln't spell mass. and forgot all about kansas. fun

20. SnakeEyes
    March 5th, 2007 at 1:14 am

    I did okay, but I missed 8 of them, and then kicked myself because they're things I should have remembered... "Vermont? People ski there!". Still figure I did okay for a Canadian

21. no means maybe
    March 5th, 2007 at 2:47 am

    Here is my one-up the childhood ego trip. At my school for our geography final we were given a blank piece of paper and had to draw the US with all state borders & names, state capitals, mountain ranges, major rivers, and the names of the Great Lakes. I think I got a C on it.

22. Jim
    March 5th, 2007 at 10:15 am

    i missed seven because of the spelling

23. Jim
    March 5th, 2007 at 10:22 am

    finally did it with 4 minutes to spare

24. clayton
    March 5th, 2007 at 11:15 am

    fifty nifty song learner here... connecticut and massachussettes killed me... i didn't know how to spell them

25. Eric Haines
    March 7th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

    Funny to see myself forget (for a minute) Pennsylvania, given that I live in New York State, about 70 miles from PA. Michigan was the last state I recalled, which is odder still since I was born and raised about 20 miles from its border. Nebraska was very late in the game but didn't stump me because of Internet "fill out your state" forms: for New York I need to hit the N key 6 times to get to this state, so I knew I was missing an N state when there were only 4 in front of New York on my "done" list. Lucked out and finished with 2:20 to go. Fun! Now to test my kids...

26. Mark
    March 26th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

    How fun... Got 'em all with 7:39 remaining. As mentioned above, I remembered them in geographical order.

27. Reye
    April 20th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    Heh! I got all those states in the SEC, followed by an easy Big Ten mnemonic, even included a little ACC and Big East, switched to remembering the Bible Belt....but there's just a big hole of nothingness where the Pac-10 used to be...

28. fae
    January 3rd, 2008 at 5:29 am

    finished with 7:41 left on the clock!
    i went back extremely far in the neatorama archives.
    >.< but this was still fun

29. Canadian
    June 14th, 2008 at 7:34 am

    Im 22 in Canada. I got all but 2 in about 9:12 sec..

    I was missing Wyoming and kept spelling Oklahoma - Oaklahoma.. haha

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