Regional Trivia: Right, "not friendly" -- that's what I said.

Similar, I imagine, to Who's Your City? by Richard Florida (get it? His name is a state), the Wall Street Journal has come out with an article on geographically based characteristics: i.e., New Yorkers are neurotic, North Dakotans are outgoing...yeah. Outgoing.

The results may surprise or not surprise you, depending on where you live (and how surprised people living where you live are inclined to be).

While the findings broadly uphold regional stereotypes, there are more than a few surprises. The flinty pragmatists of New England? They're not as dutiful as they may seem, ranking at the bottom of the "conscientious" scale. High scores for openness to new ideas strongly correlates to liberal social values and Democratic voting habits.

The article seems surprised at the lack of "dutiful" attitude in New England, but I'm not. Being pragmatic and being dutiful are often at odds with each other. We may never have been "dutiful" people at all.

But we have been freezing people, and that turns everything in winter into a duty.