In “The Geography of Happiness”, a group of University of
Vermont math researchers used Twitter to link keywords to geography and found
that Louisiana is the saddest state in America. Coming in a close
second-to-last is our neighbor, Mississippi.
Not surprisingly, Hawaii is the happiest state followed by
Maine (could it be the great blueberries?), Nevada (legalized prostitution and
gambling?), Utah (polygamy?) and Vermont (?????).
Why is Louisiana judged as the saddest state?
“Louisiana is
revealed as the saddest state primarily as a result of an abundance of
profanity relative to the other states,” the study said.
The study also
looked at cities and determined that Beaumont, Texas is the saddest city.
Shreveport, Monroe, Houma and Alexandria all placed in the 15 saddest cities.
The wine country
of Napa, California was judged the happiest city.
The second study,
by a group of political scientists at the University of Chicago in Illinois,
found that Louisiana has had the most political corruption since 1976.
Now, if you take
out Edwin Edwards, “Dollar” Bill Jefferson, Aaron Broussard, and Ray Nagin,
Louisiana might be in the middle of the pack.
Of course, those
of us in Jefferson Parish would still have John Alario and the still unbuilt and way overpriced, Jefferson Performing Arts Center.
