[chbrown]

I knew there was a West Virginia, but I did not know there was a West Michigan!

[outside1234]

cultural insight: west michigan is what west michiganders call themselves to distance themselves from Detroit.

[ahi]

To be fair, other Michiganders call it West Michigan to distance themselves from West Michigan as well.

[kaonashi]

Hey, you have a problem with the VanDerVosses?

[54mf]

Bingo. I'm originally from Northern Michigan - technically Northern Lower Michigan, to distance ourselves from the crazy backwoods folk in the UP, and from the run-down big city craziness of Detroit and Lansing.

[gvb]

...and yoopers call us trolls because we live "under the bridge."

[liamgriffiths]

i don't think that distance is the right word there, more like differentiate. michigan is a big diverse state. i think it is more so geographic shorthand

[warech]

See: Northern California(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_California), South Jersey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Jersey), etc.