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[John Rudd]

"Chris W. Parker" wrote:
>
> Julian Field <mailto:mailscanner at ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>
>     on Thursday, July 22, 2004 12:08 PM said:
>
> >> Ah, I'm sure what he meant to say was that it's mid way up the west
> >> coast, give or take. <g>
> >
> > You mean there's a difference?
>
> assuming your question is not rhetorical...
>
> yes the midwest is sort of the middle northern part of the united
> states*. "mid way up the west coast" is oregon. none of the midwest
> states sit on either coast. if someone told you oregon is in the midwest
> they are mistaken. it is about as far west as you can get save hawaii
> and alaska.
>
>

It becomes more clear when you find out that the term "mid-west"
originated shortly after we stopped being colonies of the UK.  It is a
term that is relative to the 13 colonies.  (and, really, it's not truely
"middle of the continent", it's "near the great lakes", which is
slightly _east_ of the middle of the continent ... the mid region of the
continent is "central US", so "mid-west" is east of "central" ... and we
wonder why other countries think we're ignorant about geography)

It makes more sense, though, when you think about the "west" in
"mid-west" as meaning "just west of the original 13 colonies", where the
"far west" was everything past that (and the "near west" meant you were
still in the colonies).  (though, I think "near west" and "far west"
were just how it was explained to me, I don't know if they actually
existed as terms in that period of history)

It has nothing to do with "middle of the west coast".

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