How Americans feel about the states

[angus]

No real surprises on that graph.

I guess I'd also have said Massachusetts for the weirdest local accent, at least among all the states I've lived in.  

For best food I like spicy, and a preponderance of all-you-can-eat Indian buffets, so I'd go with Texas because there are so many bubbaburger joints with jalapeños and all sorts of sauces, and so many all-you-can-eat Indian buffets.  (To be fair, there are three all-you-can-eat Indian buffets withing five miles from my house and lots of spicy stuff on offer right here in Lancaster.)  

I've had some pretty bad food in Louisiana, in fact most of the food I've ordered in Louisiana has been bad, but that's probably owing to the fact that most of the food I've had in Louisiana has been fast food just off IH10 and IH20.  There certainly is a high density of extremely expensive, top-end restaurants and a number of cooking schools in a very small part of Louisiana, and when I've ventured deep into the swamps south of IH10 I've always enjoyed the gumbos and etoufee and oyster rice and shrimp dishes I've eaten, and I guess that this is the stereotype that gets propagated.  

Worst food for me is in the Four Corners region.  It's really hard to find good food there, even in grocery stores, where the shelves are largely empty except lots of loaves of stale white bread and lots of really brown bananas.  I'd probably go with NM here, neglecting all the wonderful Tex Mex places I've eaten at in Albuquerque.  

I guess my favorite and least favorite vary depending upon circumstances.  Right now they're both Pennsylvania.

Craziest is probably California, but that's not a bad thing.

Hottest is Iowa, of course.

Ugliest, per capita, is probably New Jersey.

Beautiful scenery for me is Hawaii, without a doubt, but bear in mind that I've only been to 44 of the states.  

Worst scenery I've seen is Kansas.

I'd go with Mississippi for the drunkest based on what I saw during the three years I lived there, but statistically I'd guess that it's probably New Mexico.  Certainly I'd expect it to be one of those two very impoverished states.

Best vacation:  Hard call.  I like Hawaii and Florida.

Arrogant:  tie between Texas and New York.

Rudest:  in terms of social norms, like respecting the concept of the queue at a bank, I've found Mississippi to be the rudest.  

Nicest:  California, among the states I've lived in.  Shallow people with the sort of superficial nicety that I prefer over the more intrusive Midwestern variety.

Smartest and Dumbest are tough, and depends upon definitions.  Wyoming has the highest percentage of its population graduating high school, and its very low density requires a certain self-sufficiency not found elsewhere.  New Jersey has the highest per-capita spending on public schools.  Illinois has the highest average SAT score.  None of those are particularly good measures.  I'd have to think deeply about this before answering.

Best sports fans are from Minnesota.  Worst are from Boston.  (I can see why New York would be picked as best and worst though.  I've been to Yankees homes games.  It's just that I've been to more Red Sox home games and Twins home games than Yankees.  I suspect most Americans haven't.)

kicked out:  none.  If we absolutely had to remove some I'd go with something bordering Canada and west of Minnesota.

Overrated:  California

Underrated:  California