As someone who’s niece is in the special needs class, the one thing they don’t have is assholes. Those kids have a fucking great time
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Exactly
I kept saying “Take Maryland! Take Maryland!”
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New Hampshire dropping to 41 is crazy in itself, but dropping below states like South Dakota and West Virginia is even more baffling.
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Maryland the biggest faller so far 
This is crazy.
South Dakota over Maryland is crazy.
And as a native Iowan that’s a Tory Taylor pick! Wild.
God @Soly is so good at this
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Agreed, none of the 4 states in the northern eastern corner of the US should drop out of the Top 25 imo.
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If New England was a single state I’d be interested to see how high it would go
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Top 5, despite Connecticut and Rhode Island
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I think New England as a state would firmly be top 5 option
Obv depends on how you weight certain criteria for this, but to me, it’s always down to CA (lifestyle, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, wine country, great and diverse food, beaches, mountains, great golf, etc) and NY (media and financial opportunities galore and nexus of the universe, great restaurants and food, Broadway shows, upstate and Hudson Valley and Finger Lakes and Lake Placid, great beaches on Long Island and great golf). Sure, Hawaii would be my #1 if I didn’t need to work, but assuming this is a realistic moving decision for me, it’s between CA and NY.
Get Florida outta here. It’s population is largely boomers with weird plastic surgery who don’t work, Florida man and couples with upside down pineapples in their front yards, strip malls, restaurant chains, and satellite offices for those who work for conglomerates so they have a tax-efficient place to spend their last 5-8 years of employment before fully retiring. Have golf year-round, though I doubt you want to play in July and August, and then the ever present hurricane risk and increasingly limited home insurance options (and it’s a historically volatile housing market to begin with down there outside of Jacksonville, St Augustine etc)
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The love for Nebraska has gone way way too far.
@Tron loses the championship to me when he, as the epicurean, passes on Maryland for SD.
You have to take Maryland and blue crabs there as a value pick. That’s arguably the strongest food delicacy to state association in the union. Old bay, blue crabs and a natty bo… a top 5 state food, maybe top 3. Could be tops in all honesty.
Fun fun listen on my drive through the very overrated Iowa (my home state) to the fairly rated Illinois.
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I think Cape Cod is my favorite place on Earth. New England as a state would clear.
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@Tron lost the competition for me the moment he tried to pronounce Nevada. Immediate DQ in my book.
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There’s no criteria on the draft right? I haven’t listened yet. If so, I’m fascinated to listen to the reasoning.
No criteria. Choose your own adventure.
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I loved this draft. I had several laugh out loud moments. But I thought Cody and Ben were not clear enough on what criteria they were using to score these drafts. There is no right answer but it seemed pretty haphazard.
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Everyone’s opinion’s are different but TC’s is personally the worst for me. I asked myself. Would I live there. Would I visit there.
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For every state I asked, would I live there and would I visit there. I would want to visit every state Soly selected. Hands down the best list top to bottom.
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That’s the way I would score the choices as well. I don’t subscribe to establishing contiguous borders, or water/mineral rights, or anything that suggests the goal was to build a new nation of 10 states. For me, it’s do I want to live in that state, or do I want to visit that state?
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My limited experience with the Refuge suggests that every discussion becomes a food discussion, so let’s do that. I think you may be overvaluing the blue crab as a top state cuisine. I see a number of options that are just as iconic if not more so.
Fedora Food Five:
5. Tie: Nebraska and New Mexico - grass feed ribeye and sweet corn, and anything with hatch chiles.
4. Alaska - wild salmon
3. Louisiana - Crawfish and shrimp. The Cajun and creole food of New Orleans. Nuff said.
2. California - the sheer bounty of farm to table options, but I’ll go with the genre of coastal California cuisine, and throw in a California burrito or fish taco.
- Texas - BBQ Beef brisket and Tex-Mex
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I’ve never been, but how do you have a food ranking and not include New York? I’d imagine you could get most anything you want there.
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