Just in Time for the Caucuses

I recognize the shapes of many states from watching local television weather reports. Seeing the state graphic behind Storm Phillips every night locked New York's outline in my brain. The mitten that is Wisconsin is unmistakable to me too.

But how well do I recognize all the other state outlines and their relative positions on the map? Fairly well, thanks to a favorite puzzle I had as a kid and too much time staring at the back pages of in-flight magazines.

Test yourself with this game at www.addictinggames.com/50states.

Pull each randomly served state into its correct position on the blank US map outline. The task is harder when you're served up interior states early in the game. The game calculates your errors in miles, but allows you to snap the state in its correct place before placing the next one.

Careful that you don't drop Hawaii. That mouse accident can cause an error of thousands of miles and mess up your average error score. See my best score so far in the screen shot on the left. Score: 96.07, Avg Error: 6 miles, Time: 360 secs.

West Virginia is the weirdest shaped state. I can't imagine living there and seeing that shape with the pointy-part on top every night on the local weather. But they say you can get used to anything.