As a wizards season ticket holder, I observe a lot of the non-natives who nonetheless choose to live here acting in loutish and rude ways towards the home team, which I always thought was a bit much. Root for your team, fine, celebrate if you win, but don’t disprespect the home team lest you want an invitation extended that you move back to Detroit, Boston, San Antonio, or Milwaukee.

However, we just drove up to Cleveland to take my sister to a Wizards game up there, against the Cavs. The way people in Cleveland looked at us, gasp, Wizards fans, made it clear that Cleveland is totally provincial. I’ve seen villagers in Rwanda who were more accustomed to “outsiders” than your average Clevelander.

All of which made me very proud of the fact that while DC may not have much to offer in the way of regionalism (at least by conventional definitions) it is certainly far from provincial. Kids from DC/MD/VA-ugh don’t go slack-jawed when they see people from a different part of the country, at least.

With apologies to the many thousands of people who spend their entire lives there, DC is more of a place you move to than a place you’re from. It’s got quirky neighborhoods and areas like any reasonably sized town, but it’s difficult to pin down a vibe, outside of pervasive nihilism.

I’ll also second Senor Nunes in that attempts to self label your neighborhood, town, region, etc. strike me as phony. It’s like the Seinfeld bit about how you can’t pick your own nickname.

I believe Portland, OR has a similar theme/bumpersticker statement of artsiness, and I’m always skeptical of the need to express, in a standardized way, your belief that a certain part of the country is particularly creative…but that’s just the contrarian in me, probably.