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Part of our state is missing
By adamg on Sat, 02/18/2017 - 1:57pm
Where'd western Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley go? Apparently, they've been replaced by something called West Mass. But, wait, why'd they stop there? Was WeMa already taken?
West Mass is the land of Modern Mavericks. We share a fierce independence and an insatiable desire to take the road less traveled. And we will attract others that share that desire to be, do, live and work in ways that help them stand out rather than fit in. From the casual visitor to the head of a major corporation, the person who wants to come here is the person who wants to make their own way.
West Mass exists and always has for those with pioneering, irreverent, inventive, courageous and relentless spirits that will not rest until they have found their own first.
Also, note that West Mass people are the most fertile, modest people around.
Note: www.visitwestmass, as of 1:45 p.m. on Saturday, redirects to an older Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley Wow site.
H/t Drew Starr.
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Comments
More on the attempt to rebrand
The Hampshire Gazette gives both sides of the issue, including the rationale for trying to call the people who live there "Mavericks" and to get rid of the whole Pioneer Valley thing:
Oh for Christ's sake
I'm from there. This is nonsense. It's called western Mass or the Valley. Either is fine. Nothing needs to be changed. No-one calls it the Pioneer Valley in day to day conversation.
Sofa king stupid.
And yes, there's like 50 more miles of MA beyond 'the Valley' and that's also western MA.
'Modern mavericks'? Good f_cking gracious.
West Mass lulz
It's Western Mass. Now all you kids settle down. Beyond the valley is the Berkshires.
Summer jobs include picking cucumbers or putting tobacco up in the barn.
Kids say things like 'dur hay' when their friends say something obvious or 'shake a leg' when they walk too slowly.
Western mass lost its manufacturing like the rest of the rust belt. There are good jobs but not for low-skilled workers. Thomas Franks says Wall Street Dems abandoned the working class during the Clinton presidency and became the party of wall street and high tech entrepreneurs and tech workers. And that organized labor has two options bad and worse.
Not totally true
The tobacco is gone now although I suppose the cucumber farms persist. I suspect that's all migrant labor now.
There's still a lot of small shop manufacturing out there which is skilled but still blue collar. Yankee Candle, Pelican, etc... are larger volume employers but there's a lot of 5-30 employee kind of places tucked in making parts for the gun companies and regional tech manufacturers.
If there are 'modern mavericks', they are probably at the Book Mill or the Haymarket, writing up their business plan while hogging up cafe tables for hours on ends.
There are fewer of them, but
There are fewer of them, but the tobacco farms are still here. I drive past them all the time.
In the early 20th century this used to be called the "Asparagus Valley". Then came the asparagus blight, and the name vanished along with the asparagus. If it weren't for the blight, we might not be having this discussion.
The Valley may have a branding ID problem but, by whatever name, the word gets out. Hollywood routinely comes out here to make movies, and last summer I ran into a large party of Italian tourists snapping away at the entrance to the Bridge of Flowers.
Kidding, right?
Kidding, righr? There's still plenty of Hadleygrass, every spring.
Twice (three times if you count "The Human Stain" isn't "routinely".
Every single day of every single summer, actually.
The asparagus came back
The asparagus came back of course - didn't mean to mislead - and it's still the Panama Red of asparagus. The name however succumbed to the blight.
It's not just Shelburne Falls where Hollywood comes to play. Alec Baldwin starred as a villainous doctor (I think) in a movie filmed at least partly in Northampton in the '80s or '90s. I didn't see it, but I do recall some self-important types from out of town communicating via walkie-talkies on the suddenly trafficless Main Street while it was being shot.
West Mass movies LOL, West Mass
and back in the day (1971), "Carnal Knowledge" with Jack Nicholson, Ann-Margret , Art Garfunkel, Candice Bergen , Rita Moreno , Cynthia O'Neal and Carol Kane
"Their own first" what?
"...spirits that will not rest until they have found their own first."
Their own first "what"? Someone needs to go back to remedial sentence building class.
I'm from there, too. The City of Homes as I guess it's still known by some.
In my fantasy world, Western Mass would become part of Vermont.
Several towns/cities would have to change their names to avoid duplication - e.g. Springfield but I think it would be worth it.
Where's that high-speed rail link? Oh, that's right. Just a dream somebody had.
Like the Big Dig for Route 91 - put it underground - make the Connecticut River
a recreational playground. Also, the magical elimination of Bondi's Island.
And, of course, the casino is going to make all that happen.
I just clicked on the website
I just clicked on the website's link, and the two rotating advertising pictures covering most of the site’s front page are for:
#1: Yankee Candle Village (Conveniently located at I 91 Exit 24 in case you are interested)
#2: $1 off popcorn, hot dog and soda on Fridays while watching the Springfield Thunderbird
I wasn't sure of what to expect, but this is not what I had in mind upon reading that it is the land of "Modern Mavericks who share a fierce independence and an insatiable desire to take the road less traveled”!
It won't work
People in Massachusetts call places by names and/or landmarks that haven't existed for upwards of 30 years. There's no substance behind this rebranding campaign, so why would anyone even pay attention?
Does That Mean Florida Is Located In "East New York"?
I'm guessing their three self-proclaimed "exceptional" counties are Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden?
Where does that leave Berkshire County? Is Florida considered part of East New York? (EastNy? EaNy?)
western mass
would be a lot nicer if it was just entirely uninhabited by western massachusettsians
Goes without saying
Pretty much anywhere would be nicer without humans mucking it up.
People from western mass are a lot like people from Boston
People from western mass are a lot like people from Boston. They're Catholic, Irish, and Polish, except they're nice. Zing.
It's doing just fine, actually
...because it doesn't have you, you flaming sociopath asshole.
that sounds more like
something you would need to get excised and biopsied.
Sounds relatively benign
I'd be more concerned about Bluemass and Redmass.
Lol no.
Lol no.
Signed, a Springfield native.
Is there a linguistic rule to
Is there a linguistic rule to determine West vs Western? "WestMass" hurts my mind. It aint right.
I feel your pain
Let's see. "West" is a noun ("lily of the west," "the American west") or an adjective ("west parking lot"). "Western" is only a noun when referring to cowboy movies or books, or omelettes, I think. It's an adjective with at least two slightly different meanings ("western music," "western migration"). The latter would be interchangeable with westward.
"West" as an adjective seems to be used mostly when incorporated with an official, or proper, or widely recognized name, like "West Virginia," "West Indies," "West Africa,""the West Village."
Morgantown is in West Virginia. Blacksburg VA is in western Virginia.
"I live on West Campus at BU" is different from "I took classes at the western campus of UVA, which is in Wise County, not Charlottesville."
So, "Western Mass" is an acceptable description of an area. "West Mass" is not, nor is it a broadly recognized place. We're left with the Etymological Coinage Rule of Clueless: stop making West Mass happen
Are they sure it isn't Mass West?
I've always found the local habit of appending directions to names to be very confusing.
Case in point: Not South Newton or North Newton high schools, but Newton South and Newton North. In much of the country, sticking it on the end like that would never be done.
Yeah, Swirly, interesting point
I always thought it was just pretentious. "Metro West" instead of the western 'burbs.
yay subject-oriented analysis
Yay subject-oriented analysis, my heroes.
West Somerville, East Somerville, North Cambridge, West Medford
are all terms in common use, although they are all informal designations of places that don't have official boundaries or status.
We still have the town of North Reading, and used to have the towns of West Cambridge (now Arlington), North Chelsea (now Revere) and South Reading (now Wakefield).
Question begged
"West" as an adjective seems to be used mostly when incorporated with an official, or proper, or widely recognized name, like "West Virginia," "West Indies," "West Africa,""the West Village."
How does a usage become widely recognized? When did that happen with West Texas? (OK, these people would probably have it be West Tex.) Somebody had to coin the usage.
I don't want West Mass to catch on, but you haven't really proved that it's unprecedented.
An improper/antiquated usage
An improper/antiquated usage (which is what "Mass West" or "West Mass" would be) becomes broadly known when someone who has no first hand familiarity with the usage recognizes what it means.
Both "Mass West" and "West Mass" are grammatically incorrect if we mean "western Mass." So this is an attempt to coin a new, ungrammatical name, which will become acceptable if it becomes as popular than the current, grammatically correct designation for the same place.
To use a different analogy, even if you've never set foot in Massachusetts, you probably know that the Boston professional basketball team is mispronounced with a sibilant "c." The incorrect but widely recognized pronunciation of the name has stuck.
Or, the main street in Jamaica Plain retains the older English/French spelling "Centre," rather than the modern English "Center." The widely recognized and proper name is retained.
And, harking back to what Swirly said above, I wonder if the tendency to use directional words after the noun they modify is a hangover from French New England, or just a pretentious Frenchification.
The reason why you can't understand this
is because you're not a 'modern maverick'.
So congrats on that because these people seem like nitwits, to be kind.
Love the reference, but it's
Love the reference, but it's from Mean Girls, not Clueless.
Oh, right!
I stand corrected. *fetch*
Ugh
No, no, no. I'm from Western Massachusetts, Hampshire County, Pioneer Valley. W. MA if necessary, West Mass never. :/
Isn't Berkshire County part of West Mass?
The westest part?
Yes, referred to fondly as
Yes, referred to fondly as The Berkshires.
What the f'ing f??
I had heard this was bad but I had no idea. In both content and execution, I can't remember the last time I saw a video this awful. It looks like something a talentless high school videographer cobbled together in 1983. And it's unsurprising that it was made by a Tulsa, OK firm--it has a weird Midwestern aura. And "modesty"--really?? Confounded.
Modesty
"Fertility", followed by"Modesty"-wtf indeed. Not exactly in agreement with the " stand out rather than fit in" philosophy.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 are Modest?
Seriously?
Also, does anyone know where that "fertility" farmer's market is? It looks suspiciously like the one in Burlington, Vermont, but I may be mistaken.
Tulsa, OK
They couldn't find a local company to do this? Makes me wonder if someone is just going around "branding" regions, making these videos from stock footage and trying to sell crap or something. So much of this is generic, non-specific, and looks like it was taken from other sources.
The music is annoying and the fast edits make my brain bleed. Almost like the person who directed this proceeded without even understanding that one of the reasons that city folk like to go to Western MA is to slow down!
As a long ago Tulsan....
... I hereby apologize.
What company?
bit of a correction
The mashup video for fertile and modest Modern Mavericks was made in Holyoke.
The rebranding campaign (which oversaw the video, rebranding, and rollout) was run by Cubic Creative of Tulsa, OK.
At least they are on Boston Ave. in Tulsa ...
Boston in Tulsa
It comes between Main Street and Cincinnati. ;-) (Streets east of Main were named after cities east of the Mississippi, those west, were named after ones west of the Mississippi).
Well, Rhode Islands recent
Well, Rhode Islands recent "cooler and warmer" campaign was pretty damn horrible too...
Which mass ?
I think it's a Catholic vs. Orthodox thing. There were some who were concerned that Western Mass could be confused with Western Rite.
Keep New Hampshire on the defensive !
You have to give these guys points for their gutsy attempt to co-opt Robert Frost. (In fairness, Frost was a professor at Amherst College, and the town of Amherst has a major archive of his material.)
Robert Frost Trail FTW! (Also
Robert Frost Trail FTW! (Also shout outs to M&M)
IIRC Frost also taught at
IIRC Frost also taught at Harvard. His family farm was in NH.
Shayern's Rebellion
Yes, of course there's now a Facebook group to fight the idea of West Mass: @WestERNMassDammit.
Almost enough
This is almost enough to tempt me to join Facebook. Just so I could join this group.
Don't delete the "ern"
and while your at it, wadd back the "achusetts". I hate Mass. I love Massachusetts
Its "western mass", from the 413...
"West Mass" disgusts me. :(
Compare and Contrast
The WastMess one was difficult to follow or figure out what the point was - or what they were filming or where it was.
This was clearly put together to showcase the region. I actually took notes. Going to have to find that donut place and now I want to go to the Big E. Maybe even the Hu Ke Lau if I'm not driving.
Donut place
Adams Donuts in Greenfield. You won't regret it. Well, you might, but in a good way.
On the eighth day ...
Bicycles were created, so that much ice cream and donuts could be consumed without guilt. And it was good.
Amen.
I could probably burn several off on a round trip between Amherst and Greenfield.
Wow, I have not seen that,
Wow, I have not seen that, thanks for posting. So many references! (Kudos for going to the Peace Pagoda in Leverett though it's probably not the best place for a hip hop video)