Hello? FBI? We're missing a state....can you help us?
We recently went out to California to visit an old high-school friend (and hope to have a few pictures soon...) in honor of his 50th birthday. We were not expected, it was a huge surprise, and everyone seemed to have a blast. We had never been to Silicon Valley before, and as Kansas residents, we thought we would be treated as weirdos or dangerous red-staters. Not so. People were very nice, though their knowledge of Kansas was pretty skimpy. However, one expects a bit more from the newspaper. The San Jose Mercury News published an article about Internet wine sales, and the states that do and do not allow cross-state shipments of wine. I looked at the map to find what Kansas policy was. I'm still not sure....one of our 50 states is missing.
Many years ago, when we lived in New Mexico, I experienced a few of those missing states experiences for which New Mexico is famous. I had a person ask me what the exchange rate was. I told them "One American dollar for one American dollar." I had someone marvel to me how well we spoke English. OK, New Mexico, Old Mexico, I can understand how the average Californian could get confused. They don't teach much geography these days....But Kansas--jeez, we've been right here a long time. Even if you're just flying over, well, we do have a name!
To see the article: 
To just see the map: 