United States Map
United States Map
[A white map with an outline that closely resembles that of the mainland of the United States of America with gray all around the black border. But on closer inspection most of the states do not look right. The 48 mainland states are all there, however, with their name or abbreviations written on them as a label in gray text. But they have all been shuffled around and then reassembled as a jigsaw puzzle in the same shape as USA. The name labels for most of the states have been rotated, often to follow the new rotation of the state in the map. So some are written upside down or have been rotated 90 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise or even somewhere in between. One state, Michigan, has even been split up in two so there are 49 instead of 48 labels. For the states that have been named only with state abbreviations the full name is written in brackets behind the transcript of the abbreviation. Here below all the states are listed approximately in columns going from the top left and down and then moving right to the next column across the map. Any rotation of the text from normal is noted in brackets behind the name.] Ohio [Upside down] Georgia [Upside down] Michigan [Upside down – but only bottom part] MD [Upside down - Maryland] California [Text not rotated, but state is rotated counter-clockwise] Kansas [Upside down] Pennsylvania [Rotated clockwise] Oklahoma [Rotated clockwise] New Mexico Nebraska [Upside down] South Dakota Colorado [Rotated counter clockwise] Wyoming [Rotated counter clockwise] Utah [Text normal, but state is upside down, i.e. the text is upside down in the state] Alabama MA [Rotated counter clockwise – Massachusetts] Virginia [Rotated counter clockwise] Arizona [Rotated counter clockwise] Washington [Rotated counter clockwise] Montana [Rotated clockwise - but the state is rotated counter clockwise, i.e. the text is upside down in the state] New York Minnesota [Upside down] Texas [Upside down] CT [Rotated clockwise –Connecticut] Missi- ssippi [Rotated clockwise - text split with hyphen] Nevada Idaho [Rotated clockwise] South Carolina [Rotated counter clockwise, by more than 90 degrees, but the state is rotated exactly 90 degrees] Missouri [Upside down] Wisconsin [Upside down] Kentucky  [Rotated clockwise] North Dakota [Rotated clockwise] Florida [Rotated counter clockwise, by more than 90 degrees, but the state is rotated exactly 90 degrees] North Carolina [Rotated clockwise] Indiana RI [Label below in the ocean –Rhode Island] Oregon [Rotated clockwise] Iowa Tennessee [Upside down] Illinois Maine [Upside down] NH [New Hampshire] MI (upper) [Rotated 45 degree counter clockwise – Michigan but only upper part] Arkansas NJ [New Jersey] Louisiana [Rotated 45 degree counter clockwise - but the state is rotated exactly 90 degrees] West Virginia [Rotated 45 degree clockwise] DE [Rotated counter clockwise – label to the right in the ocean – Delaware] VT [Upside down –Vermont]



The comic is a map with the (rough) outline of the mainland of the United States of America . At first it looks like the real map, but actually all the states have been shuffled around in it. It seems that Randall took all of the states (minus Alaska and Hawaii , the two states that are not part of this map and are only mentioned in the title text, see below), and then reassembled them in the style of a jigsaw puzzle, with the end result being a map with a similar outline to the original unaltered mainland state map . They can thus be reassembled into the real map as can be seen here (see also the trivia section ).
Previously Randall has played with the shapes of the United States in 1079: United Shapes . In that map he did two separate drawings for Michigan with a mitten in the lower part and an eagle in the upper part . Once again in this version he has split Michigan in two, the lower main part, the mitten just labeled Michigan , is on the west coast on part of California's location, but the upper part is located on the east coast over New York's location and has been labeled MI (upper) . So even without Hawaii and Alaska, there are 49 "states" in this map, consisting of 47 states plus the two halves of Michigan. In the table below all 49 states in the map has been listed to indicate where the puzzle pieces have been moved to.
It seems at a first glance that the names have been written on the states as they would appear in a normal map, and that they have all then been rotated with the rotation of the states. But this is not the case for all states. For instance it seems like Utah has hardly been moved at all, and with the name written normally this may be intentionally to deceive the readers. Because Utah has been turned upside down, and according to how for instance Texas , clearly turned upside down, has its name written upside down as well, Utah should thus also have been written like that.
It seems likely that this could be a trick by Randall, to see if anyone spots that Utah has actually been moved. But it could of course be a mistake, as seems more likely with Montana where the same "error" has occurred, but since this state has been moved far from its real position there would be no sport in doing so (see the trivia section ). Of course there is the possibility that "Utah" was on purpose and Montana by mistake. With 47 of 49 ending up rotated as expected on the map and only two exactly upside down, there can be no doubt that it was on purpose that the names in general have been written according to the states rotation. Note that for instance the state California has been rotated, but in a way so the text is written normally. But due to the direction of the state, it is normal to write the name tilted down along the state, which just coincidentally ends up being rotated normal in the position it has in the comic.
California has thus only been pushed down the length of the west border of the US (and thus rotated accordingly) so the top part still overlaps with the bottom part California, but also covers the bottom part of Arizona and New Mexico . Other states that likewise haven't been moved a lot include Maine which has only been rolled left (i.e. turned upside down) to just outside its normal position. Colorado has been moved up a state to where Wyoming usually is, and Wyoming has then just been shifted right, still covering part of its original position. But both have been turned 90 degrees, whichever way would be impossible to say for these rectangular states, but the text, if you dare believe in that, seems to indicate they have been turned counter clockwise. Wisconsin has only been shifted down below its usual position but then turned upside down.
The title text mentions how it would be unfair to use a blank version of this shuffled-up map as a quiz for knowledge of U.S. geography (the link is to such a map created by a user of this site); most people recognize states primarily by their relative locations, not their shape (and especially not their shape after being rotated). It also suggests a corresponding mean trick to play if you include Alaska and Hawaii, which are not present in the comic itself, namely to interchange the volcanic island of Hawaii (consisting of 8 main islands and hundreds of smaller ones) with those of the Aleutian Islands , also a chain of volcanic islands (14 large and 55 small) that partly belongs to the US and partly to Russia. The island extends from the Alaska Peninsula . It would thus be possible to even make it difficult to correctly name these last two states, even though it would be obvious to begin with that it must be the two not belonging to the mainland.
[A white map with an outline that closely resembles that of the mainland of the United States of America with gray all around the black border. But on closer inspection most of the states do not look right. The 48 mainland states are all there, however, with their name or abbreviations written on them as a label in gray text. But they have all been shuffled around and then reassembled as a jigsaw puzzle in the same shape as USA. The name labels for most of the states have been rotated, often to follow the new rotation of the state in the map. So some are written upside down or have been rotated 90 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise or even somewhere in between. One state, Michigan, has even been split up in two so there are 49 instead of 48 labels. For the states that have been named only with state abbreviations the full name is written in brackets behind the transcript of the abbreviation. Here below all the states are listed approximately in columns going from the top left and down and then moving right to the next column across the map. Any rotation of the text from normal is noted in brackets behind the name.] Ohio [Upside down] Georgia [Upside down] Michigan [Upside down – but only bottom part] MD [Upside down - Maryland] California [Text not rotated, but state is rotated counter-clockwise] Kansas [Upside down] Pennsylvania [Rotated clockwise] Oklahoma [Rotated clockwise] New Mexico Nebraska [Upside down] South Dakota Colorado [Rotated counter clockwise] Wyoming [Rotated counter clockwise] Utah [Text normal, but state is upside down, i.e. the text is upside down in the state] Alabama MA [Rotated counter clockwise – Massachusetts] Virginia [Rotated counter clockwise] Arizona [Rotated counter clockwise] Washington [Rotated counter clockwise] Montana [Rotated clockwise - but the state is rotated counter clockwise, i.e. the text is upside down in the state] New York Minnesota [Upside down] Texas [Upside down] CT [Rotated clockwise –Connecticut] Missi- ssippi [Rotated clockwise - text split with hyphen] Nevada Idaho [Rotated clockwise] South Carolina [Rotated counter clockwise, by more than 90 degrees, but the state is rotated exactly 90 degrees] Missouri [Upside down] Wisconsin [Upside down] Kentucky  [Rotated clockwise] North Dakota [Rotated clockwise] Florida [Rotated counter clockwise, by more than 90 degrees, but the state is rotated exactly 90 degrees] North Carolina [Rotated clockwise] Indiana RI [Label below in the ocean –Rhode Island] Oregon [Rotated clockwise] Iowa Tennessee [Upside down] Illinois Maine [Upside down] NH [New Hampshire] MI (upper) [Rotated 45 degree counter clockwise – Michigan but only upper part] Arkansas NJ [New Jersey] Louisiana [Rotated 45 degree counter clockwise - but the state is rotated exactly 90 degrees] West Virginia [Rotated 45 degree clockwise] DE [Rotated counter clockwise – label to the right in the ocean – Delaware] VT [Upside down –Vermont]


