Stand tall, stand proud, Pennsylvania.

• You refer to something as "a whole nother," e.g., "That's a whole nother issue."
• You think the roads in any other state are smooth and wonderful.
  • And you would rather drive in the winter because all the potholes are covered with snow.
• You have the first Monday after Thanksgiving off from school. It's the first day of hunting season.
• You say "LANG-kist-er" instead of the often-made-fun-of "lan-CAST-er."
• You live within two miles of a plant that makes potato chips, corn chips, pretzels, candy, or ice cream, or that packages turkey, beans or bologna. (Me - potato chip factory)
• You can correctly pronounce (AND SPELL!) Schuylkill.
• You know Penn and Penn State are two COMPLETELY different universities.
  • You also know Penn State's war cries, even if you never went to school there. "WE ARE...PENN STATE!" And damn it, you stick by those Nittany Lions, they are the heart and soul of the state.
• School closings due to snow take 30 minutes to run through because every town has its own district.
• The local Dairy Queen is closed from September to March.
• National and international news takes up about 1/2 a page in the local newspaper, but the sports section is at least 4 pages.
• You know the four seasons are Winter, Still Winter, Construction, and Almost Winter.
• Pittsburgh is "out west," and the fastest way to Philadelphia is unfortunately that road we call the turnpike.
• You know that Pittsburgh is at the intersection of the Ohio, Monongehela and Allegheny rivers (and can properly pronounce them), but refer to them as the "da O, da Mon and da Al."
• You scream "Go back to Jersey!" at least once on your way to work.
  • You know, where "dem 'Eye-talians'" are.
• You never have to worry when you get stuck in a ditch during the winter - someone in a 4WD pickup truck and chains will be by shortly.
• You elect governors such as:
  • A pro-life Democrat (Bob Casey) and pro-choice Republican (Tom Ridge)
• You know Yuengling is pronounced "Ying-ling" and is considered "premium" beer.
• You prefer Hershey's chocolate over Godiva.
• Your Department of Transportation rips up and redoes a road for four years that was probably in better condition than most.
  • Meanwhile, I was listening to a Virginia radio station once, and they had a public service announcement apologizing for any inconvenience while they did work on I-81 for a few days. STEP IT UP, PENNSYLVANIA!
• You try to claim Sidney Crosby. (He's Canadian, kids)
  • And it's Penguins or Flyers as far as hockey's concerned. One or the other.
    • YES, we will trash talk you for liking the Capitals and / or the Devils. Stupid question.
• You know who Myron Cope was.