Massachusetts: Fill & Download for Free

Spelling out the way I pronounce them, with all-caps for the syllable that I put the emphasis on.Stuff like “North”, “South”, or “West” are spelled normally, assuming everyone knows how they’re pronounced…Alabama - “Al-luh-BA-muh”Alaska - “Uh-LA-skuh”Arizona - “Air-ih-ZOHN-uh”Arkansas - “ARR-kin-saw”California - “Cal-ih-FOUR-nyuh”Colorado - “Cah-luh-RAH-doh” (extra Midwestern emphasis)Connecticut - “Cuh-NET-ih-cut”Delaware - “DEL-uh-ware”Florida - “FLOR-duh”Georgia - “JOR (yes, how the name George sounds out loud)-juh”Hawaii - “Huh-WHY-ee”Idaho - “EYE-duh-hoe”Illinois - “Ill-ih-NOY”Indiana - “In-dee-A-nuh”Iowa - “EYE-oh-wuh”Kansas - “KAN-zihs”Kentucky - “Ken-TUH-kee”Louisiana - “Loo-ee-zee-AN-uh”Maine - “Maine”…e is silent…Maryland - “MAIR-ih-lind”Massachusetts - “Mass-uh-CHOO-sis”Michigan - “MISH-ih-gin”Minnesota - “Minn-ih-SOH-duh”Mississippi - “Miss-sih-SIP-ee”Missouri - “Miz-UR-ee”Montana - “Mon-TA-nuh”Nebraska - “Nuh-BRA-skuh”Nevada - “Ne-VA-duh”New Hampshire - “New HAMP-shur”New Jersey - “New JUR-see”New Mexico - “New MEX-ih-coh”New York - “New YORK”North Carolina - “North Ca-roh-LINE-uh”North Dakota - “North Duh-KOH-duh”Ohio - “Oh-HI-oh”Oklahoma - “Oak (how you’d pronounce oak tree)-luh-HOE-muh”Oregon - “OR-ih-gun”Pennsylvania - “Pen-sil-VAIN-yuh”Rhode Island - “Road EYE-land”South Carolina - “South Ca-roh-LINE-uh”South Dakota - “South Duh-KOH-duh”Tennessee - “Ten-ih-SEE”Texas - “TEX-uhss”Utah - “YOO-taw”Vermont - “Vur-MAHNT” (Again, with extra Midwestern emphasis)Virginia - “Vur-JIN-yuh”Washington - “WAHW-shing-tin”West Virginia - “West Vur-JIN-yuh”Wisconsin - “Wih-SKAHN-sin” (The Midwestern accent enters its most powerful form here)Wyoming - “Why-OH-ming”If you’ve actually made it to the end and actually read every single one, congrats.

I'll take a stab.Let's see. There are many ways to answer this.The CapitalSo the capital of Massachusetts is Boston, which is located right along the Atlantic coast, which is very unusual. Most state capitals are in the center of the state. Boston is both the capital and the most populous city in the state, which is unusual as state capitals go.EducationMassachusetts is first in terms of state rankings in public education. There is an amusing article on Forbes in 2014, If Massachusetts Were A Country, Its Students Would Rank 9th In The World (This is based on the OECD PISA test.) It's of course not all of Massachusetts ... that tends to be disproportionately certain Boston-suburbs (e.g., Concord, Sudbury, Lexington, Sharon, Winchester, Belmont, Wellesley, etc.) and there is a correlation with socioeconomic class. In addition, in consideration of the many colleges and universities in Boston, Metro Boston, and so on -- Boston has been likened to the modern-day Athens. In addition, Boston has two of the top universities in the world (i.e., MIT and Harvard). I believe the median college degree of Bostonians is a Master degree. There used to be a saying that if you "swung a cat in Cambridge or Boston, you would hit someone with a Ph.D."Massachusetts has a number of homeschooling initiatives which are mostly **not** religious in nature; they're largely concerned parents who think they can do a better job than public education. Homeschool Support Groups in Massachusetts, Homeschooling Together (Arlington, MA), Massachusetts Homeschool Co-ops & Academic Enrichment Classes | TheHomeSchoolMom Religion (or lack thereof)Although there is a sizable Catholic population (44.9% Mass. now most Catholic state 2012 or 34% Pew Religious Landscape Study) in Massachusetts, Massachusetts is not Christian these days (for instance, according to Gallup 2015, only 22% go to church weekly). Frequent Church Attendance Highest in Utah, Lowest in Vermont Of course this also implies that there are a number of people who either self-identify as Catholics or were baptized as Catholics, but are not regular attenders or are nominal Catholics.Massachusetts has the second lowest percentage overall of Evangelicals at 9%, second to Utah (Pew Religious Landscape Study).Historically, Massachusetts had two religious groups that founded it and shared church notions: the Separatists (who largely came across on the Mayflower and landed in Plymouth) and the Puritans, who formed the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Together, they tended to found Congregational-type churches (or at least of the "Congregational" denomination). During the 17th and arguably 18th (and even into the 19th) centuries, Boston was the "city on the hill" (an Old Testament reference) and Puritans were trying to institute a theonomy. This has been considered by even conservative New England theologians as "The Failed Puritan Experiment." Christianity was central to these Puritans, who tended to build churches at the very center of the towns. Harvard College was started as a seminary, a school for ministers. Religious dissidents (including Baptists, the 'spiritual descendants' of the Anabaptists) went -- or more accurately, forced -- elsewhere, such as Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations.A number of these Congregational churches, even a majority, had spires inspired by Christopher Wren (although architect for the New England ones was Peter Banner). Like this:At the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries, most of the Congregational churches became Unitarian (and later in the middle of the 20th century, Unitarian-Universalist). To this day, numerous New England towns have a Unitarian-Universalist church at the center of their town.Massachusetts had a lot of writing/influence on all four of the "Great Awakenings." In the First Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, the pastor of a Congregational church in Northampton wrote an extensive account. George Whitefield preached in Newburyport, MA and elsewhere around the North Shore/Cape Ann area of Massachusetts. For the Second Great Awakening, Charles G. Finney preached in many churches, including Park Street Church, in Boston, MA. For the Third Great Awakening, Dwight L. Moody had been converted in Boston (the spot is still marked with a plaque to this day) and he was an influential figure. In the Fourth Great Awakening (of which both German Neo-Orthodoxy and American Neo-Evangelicalism are part), the senior minister of Boston's Park Street Church, Harold John Ockenga invited Billy Graham to start a series of crusades (1949) and when Graham crossed the continent to Los Angeles in 1951, it was recognized as a monumental event: Billy Graham's first Transcontinental Crusade. Together, the two were among the main architects of Evangelicalism (or more accurately, "Mid-Twentieth Century Neo-Evangelicalism").A state of firstsMassachusetts considers itself (probably rightly) as a state of firsts: Massachusetts Facts (and a short list: first public park - Boston Common 1634, first public secondary school, first American university/college:(Harvard Yard, top is the Widener Library), the first American printing press, the first free American public school, first American public library, the first state constitution, first American novel, first American railroad, first American swim school, first abolitionist newspaper, invention of the telegraph, Charles Goodyear's vulcanized rubber, first sewing machine, typewriter, first Christmas card, first telephone, first woman to earn a Ph.D. in the United States, first electric trolley, first basketball game, first volleyball game, first public beach in America, first American subway system, first successful liquid rocket fuel system, etc.There are some others not on that list, like first use of penicillin, first department store, first lighthouse, first American post office, first street light.Notably Boston's historic Park Street Church (founded in 1809), has also had a number of its own firsts: often the first Boston landmark that sailors saw when approaching Boston, the first American mission (to the Cook Islands, now Hawaii) and mission society, the first abolition speech (given by William Lloyd Garrison), the first Handel and Haydn Society rehearsal, the first singing of "My Country 'Tis of Thee", the first American Sunday School, America's first prison ministry, the American Temperance Society, the Animal Rescue League (America's first animal humane society), the Boston chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals, the first point of the crusade above by Billy Graham, the founding of War Relief Organization (which is now World Relief), the founding of the National Association of Evangelicals, the founding of Christianity Today, having a hand in the founding of both Andover Newton Theological School and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the founding of Park Street Kids, Park Street School, and Boston Trinity Academy.Unusual Multi-state FairEvery year around September through October, Springfield, Massachusetts holds the "Eastern States Exposition," otherwise known as The Big EVery unusually, every state's pavilion/house along the Avenue of the States is modeled after the six original New England statehouses. Very unusually, each of the statehouses and the land on which they sit are owned by the respective jurisdiction, much like national embassies. In other words, when you enter the Vermont House, you are technically on Vermont land.Economy, Tourism, and other unusual featuresNot surprisingly, due to the presence of many great universities and of course Harvard and MIT, Massachusetts is very entrepreneurial and boasts some of the nation's best hospitals, a thriving biotech industry, a decent software/high-tech industry second to Silicon Valley, a financial industry that is smallish compared to New York's Wall Street (and historically has had a lot of ties with New York).Because of its long history, many people come to Boston and Massachusetts in general for tourism. There are some rabid people who reenact the Battle on the Lexington Green every year.Boston has been likened to more of a European city (although I would probably say Montreal, especially vieux Montreal and Quebec are more European cities).Massachusetts is generally not very culturally or racially diverse (i.e., New England is the most highly Caucasian of all of the United States, although Massachusetts is the most racially diverse of New England states). The 2014 Census Population estimates, July 1, 2015, (V2015) lists 62.1% Caucasian (not Hispanic or Latino), 13.2% African American/Black, 5.4% Asian, 17.4% Hispanic or Latino, and 2.5% two or more races. As a non-border state, it has a surprising amount of foreign-born people (15.1% or 8th in the union in 2012 according to Pew 15 states with the highest share of immigrants in their population, and 13.1% according to the 2014 Census).Boston is the largest New England city and is Boston proper has a very sizable transient college/university student population. In fact, during the summer time, it is very notable that traffic is significantly better. Of course, Massachusetts drivers (as observed by anyone not from Massachusetts) are considered "very rude" for numerous reasons, including the 'creativity' of driving. One joke that was told was:(Cop on the West Coast): "Sir, do you know why I'm stopping you?"(Massachusetts man): "No ... what did I do?"(Cop): "Did you see the stop sign?"(Massachusetts man): "Sure, and I slowed down ..."(Cop): thinks about it, and starts hitting the Massachusetts man with his clipboard "Do you want me to stop or to slow down?"As New Englanders, while people in public generally avoid eye contact and avoid smiling at strangers and avoid general usage of terms of endearment with strangers, I have found that Massachusetts people are actually quite friendly. They may take a while to warm up to strangers. (This is in contrast to the South, Midwest, or even West Coast. Although my experience is that New Englanders were definitely more warm than urbanites in New York City as well as Atlanta.)The cost of living around Boston is quite high but in the rest of Massachusetts, it's pretty reasonable.

Not common at all. An idiot just in 2019 sprayed a shopping area with a modified M-16 during an assassination! He was arrested a few blocks away with a submachine gun and a pistol. Another guy (in 2017) with a 3D printer was arrested with several guns (he said he didn't know it was illegal. So much for the “successful gun laws". California, Chicago (average of one mass shooting, 9 shot per day with two dead), Massachusetts, NY., Maryland and a few other places have “gun problems" in spite of onerous regulations and near complete “gun control”.Meanwhile in Great Britain..Gun crime exists in the UK, just not voilent mass shootings, they have mass bombings as mass mayhem most commonly or vehicular mass murder is on the rise. (I think the difference is in the way the criminal justice system works there. On the law enforcement side the crooks know to surrender without giving any lip as law enforcement threatens the immediate use of lethal force, all the vids you see of criminals not heeding warnings in the US doesn't happen there, they shoot you if you resist). That is what we need here. But people there don't have “Rights”, in fact if they suspect you of having a bomb they shoot you in the head with no warning at all. You won't see a “stand off" in the UK.Also, we haven't even begun to talk about ”ghost guns" in the UK or Japan. I would estimate potentially thousands.