this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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As if anyone outside those states could distinguish between unlabelled outlines of Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
Or New Hampshire and Vermont.
I guess Connecticut pulled a pro gamer move by being a tiny rectangle.
Kentucky looks like fried chicken, that's how I always remember it
I remember it by living here.
Please help me.
It's also carried by the chef that spans from Louisiana to Minnesota.
Virginia has a similar shape tho, if not more chicken-like because it's larger on the meaty portion
Virginia isn't curved in on the bottom right like the chicken.
Virginia looks like a half baked cookie that is lopsided.
I do tend to ignore the flat bottoms of both KY and VA, I'm thinking more of the "divot" before the meaty part of the leg occurs being more prominent in VA, whereas KY is a uniform-ish slope.
Maybe a 1a and 1b situation for "States shaped like poultry" ranking lol
I guess I'm just too familiar with the shape of Virginia? The hole where West Virginia broke off gives it away too.
I feel like that's what enhances it? Lol I think of a chicken leg as like....skinny bone with a bulb on the end, and VA has more of that imo. KY ends up being more like a uniform line until it gets to the think part. 🍗 shape. I also just mean I'm reference to the shape itself, not as a memory tool. I'm from WV so I loooove the void we left in VA lol
"I'm bad at geography, so everyone else must be too" is a take for sure XD
Are you sure "Americans aren't bad at geography" isn't more of a take?
In all fairness, the same buddy that introduced me to Top Gear literally could not point out the British Isles on a map. I hinted "Isles, British Isles, think islands!" aaand... he pointed to Greece.
Guy designes engines now, so some folks are just hyperspecialized!
Self-reporting, because this is shit we learn in like 3rd grade in the US and that adults should (albeit aren't expected to) be able to do. NH and Vermont I could tell you but mainly because I reassemble their little 69 in my head as a memory aid. (A sane memory aid without needing to remember "big end bottom" or "big end top" is that NH's small vertical end is super narrow compared to its large one.)
Whereas Wyoming and Colorado – presented separately in a void with no scale – I could only tell because Wyoming is nearly a perfect rectangle while Colorado is an isosceles trapezoid (just very slightly). That's one you basically have to just memorize via a top/bottom relationship.
It was mostly a joke, I didn't think people would get so worked up.
But yeah, I'll stand by the assertion that most Americans aren't great at geography, and some states have non-distinct shapes that aren't rectangles.
I'd say I can kind of see someone getting Kentucky and Virginia mixed up, so I guess here are some general tips, throwing spaghetti at the wall so maybe it helps someone:
When i was in school, there was a web game that we were allowed to play where you had a blank map of the US and had to drag the states to the right spot. The states did not snap into place.
It was jarring how many students couldn't even get the states surrounding us right, and I'm in Texas. Like, I didn't get it 100% right because New England is a bitch, but I could get over 90%.
I think I played that same game back in the day. And yeah, when you have the context added by building out from the distinctly shaped border states, it's fairly easy to get almost all of them, but I don't expect the average American to be sure if they're looking at Indiana or Illinois based on nothing but the shape of its outline.
Vermont looks like a V!
None of those states look anything alike though
I play Statele every day and I'm not from the US. I'm usually wrongthough so I guess