U.S. Residents Share Lesser-Known Facts About Their Home State

Did you know that Jacksonville is actually the largest city in Florida by area? Also cool: It is the most populous city in the South outside of the state of Texas. For those of you who've seen The Good Place, it seems that Jason Mendoza actually did have something to be proud of when he bragged about living in Jacksonville all the time.

The United States is enormous––and there's so much more to learn. After Redditor FriendoAmigo asked the online community, "U.S. residents: What is a lesser known fact about the state you live in?" people took the opportunity to boast!


Louisiana

Louisiana is the only state that uses the Napoleonic Code for laws. Louisiana is also the only state that has parishes instead of counties.

keesouth

Pennsylvania

Until WWI German was the most spoken language in PA. Papers were printed in it, schools were taught in it, it was spoken in homes and businesses. Then we soured on Germany and in a matter of years it was erased except for place names, last names, and the language of the Plain people.

tehmlem

Michigan

Michigan has the only authentic Dutch windmill operating in the United States.

ChaseDonovan

Somehow...

...this doesn't surprise me.

New Jersey

New Jersey is home to the Pine Barrens, basically the cleansing apparatus for the entire Northeastern seaboard for the last few centuries. Interesting lore surrounding the New Jersey Devil living there too.

Kin2Monkey

They are also the setting for that one scene in "The Sopranos."

You know the one.

Idaho

The first instance of nuclear power producing electricity happened in Arco, Idaho.

A lab there created the world's first breeder reactor (EBR-1) and produced just enough electricity to power 4 lightbulbs.

Bonus, but probably less surprising, fact: Idaho hosts the national finals for competitive fiddling. The town of Weiser triples in population during the contest as over 7k people come through to compete, hang out, and jam.

Rhodehouse93

Minnesota

Minnesota was not a very populous state during the Civil War, but we sent hundreds of soldiers to fight, including the First Minnesota. The First Minnesota Regiment suffered 80% casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg, but for their sacrifice they won a Virginian Battle Flag as a trophy from the field.

CaptValentine

Florida

Miami is NOT the biggest city in Florida by population. It's actually Jacksonville (city proper). However, the Miami metropolis (Miami and its surrounding cities; Miami Beach, Hialeah, Hollywood, etc.) are much more populous than Jacksonville, which is why Miami really is a much "bigger" city than Jacksonville in the traditional sense (also more high rise buildings). The amount of people within the same amount of square miles around Miami vs Jacksonville is much higher in Miami, but the "city proper" of Miami is smaller.

TenantFace

Wisconsin

Wisconsin may be 2nd in volume of dairy products (the sheer size of California overwhelms) but we are #1 in cranberry production.

Also, our state animal and college mascot (the badger) derives from our early mining history, though mining is not much––if anything––in our economy.

steelgate601

Cranberries are incredible.

I could probably snack on them all day. I'd likely be in heaven if I paid the state a visit.

Maryland

Maryland has a state sport and it is jousting.

lawyerfish

Utah

Utah is home to the second highest population of Pacific Islanders, second only to Hawaii.

Flylo21

The country is vast!

Take a road trip sometime. You could drive and drive and drive and never see all of it. There's always more to see and do––we are lucky to live in a land as varied as this one.

Have some facts of your own? Feel free to share them in the comments section below!

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Customer service jobs are not for the faint of heart.

Dealing with people at their angriest and rudest does not breed a positive work environment.

Customer service can be a downright toxic job.

And if it's not the customers setting your spirit on fire, it's the companies themselves.

Some companies seem to revel in creating discontent.

That's why these types of jobs have such high turnover.

Redditor Psychological-Name15 wanted the customer service reps out there to give us some truths, so they asked:

"Customer service workers of Reddit, what secret can you reveal from your former company?"

I want to know about the inner workings of Comcast!!

I loathe them!

Oh Dear

Jennifer Lopez Smh GIF by American IdolGiphy

I used to work in tech support for Citi Bank. The people working there are not intelligent. My favorite interaction went like this..."

"Banker - How do I type the upside down I?"

"Me - Ma'am, that's an exclamation point."

slappy_mcslapenstein

The Crappy People

"In every CS job I’ve ever had: we will bend over backward to help a nice person. We will expedite any complaint, give maximum compensation, and harass other areas of the business for you."

"We will do the absolute bare minimum to help a shi**y person and if you’re really bad, we will do everything in our power to make sure you get nothing but what you’re legally entitled to and it will be a process to get that."

11catsinahumansuit

"I don’t work in CS but 100% the same for us in IT a nice person will get new stuff while a shi**y person will get questionable secondhand crap that will take 12 months to fix! I will make sure that you wait as long as humanely possible to have anything fixed!"

Sharp-Demand-6614

Go to Holiday Inn

"If you ask for a supervisor calling Marriott you will just get another person who is not a supervisor, but say they are."

cryptnificent

"Yep. I've seen this done numerous times across multiple industries. Usually, it only involves an actual sup if it's a genuine problem or if they want to make a point."

"The last job I had was in towing junk cars. Two of the inside buyers, one male, and one female, would bounce that sup card around constantly. Idk how no one ever put it together. We'd get repeat callers and repeat sellers so I don't know."

ItsBobFromLumbridge

Heartless

"Worked at a contracted call center for Centrelink. The manager told us to deny as many emergency payments as possible and they would back us no matter what. They were actively working towards a culture that despised the callers and churned staff to get heartless right-wingers who hated the poor."

Rizza1122

"I feel ya. My best mate is a quadriplegic. Centrelink denied his disability pension because he wasn’t disabled enough."

Less-Storage

Go to Home Depot

You Are Dumb Patrick Star GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy

"I worked at Lowes. I didn't know anything about anything in the electrical department yet that's where they put me without any training."

Eattherich187

Not training people is not just a Lowes thing.

There are too many unqualified people doing too many things.

Switcharoo

Drag Race What GIF by TAZOGiphy

"Can confirm it's an unwritten policy for deli departments in Coles Supermarkets to change the written expiry dates on their tickets so they can sell out-of-code products at full price."

REDDIT

A Little Sunshine

"I worked at a call center for the billing department of a major internet and cable service provider. We were authorized to give up to $90 credit per customer on their bill but only as a last resort. Always remember to be nice to all customer service workers. You never know just how much they can help with a friendly attitude."

Axel_Dunce

"Former call center employee here. Highly accurate. Use your manners, and well fix your issue. Anything else, just makes us want to take longer, and you won't get a credit. Just because we are authorized, doesn't mean you'll get the credit for being an a**hat. haha. I've been verbally abused a few times for asking them not to swear at me. Lol."

Ok-Ad-7247

LELU

"I worked for a major telco company for many years in something called a ‘LELU’ which stands for Law Enforcement Liaison Unit. This 'unit' is pretty self-explanatory, but it essentially is a team who worked directly with the police/FEDS to monitor people's information for things such as obtaining communications history of call logs, SMS loss, etc."

"However, most importantly, the software we used, we as agents could directly see all your SMS texts, including MMS and their explicit imagery of whatever you were sending. This would include sexting, naked images, family photos, and everything. There were instances where people abused this position by stalking or 'monitoring' their SO’s comings and going’s."

MidniteMischief

Cookies!!

"I worked at a cafe chain called 'The Cookie Man,' 95% of their cookies arrived in cardboard boxes layered with bubble wrap. The last 5% arrived as pre-made dough that we would bake on-site to make the place smell like fresh cookies."

"I also worked at a cupcake shop. It's literally just packet mix that you add eggs and oil to before baking/piping pre-made icing onto. Don't waste your money on these places, 90% of these chain shops are the same and most are severely underpaying their workers (this is for Australia btw). Just purchase some packet mix from the supermarket and call it a day."

Frequent-Selection91

Look in the Back

"I was a Store Manager for a very large grocery chain and I can tell you that 95% of the time when customers complain to the manager, we may be professional and show empathy, and even resolve the problem."

"But then we usually just make fun of or talk crap about the person who complained to the other employees. And when a customer is really rude when we go 'look in the back' for something, we legit just stand around and talk to other employees, and make zero effort to look for the item."

A_Womans_Thoughts

From the Box

Kaitlin Olson Brunch GIF by The MickGiphy

"I once worked at 'the area's premiere day spa'; the mimosas were made with Sunny D and not real orange juice, and the wines came out of a box."

SailorVenus23

Sunny D and champagne?!?!

What in the name of Lucifer?

Who does that?!

Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.