The United States, geographically, is not unlike a piece of Velcro.

There are loops and hooks aplenty to prevent it coming loose from the rest of the continent. The extreme North-eastern hook is called New England. It begins from the wall-like border of New York and swings upward to grasp Canada in a rather friendly fashion.

New Englanders are thought of as plain-spoken, even taciturn, used to the hard winters and stony landscape they must endure. In truth, their stolid manner arises from the fact that, at any moment, New England might lose its grip on Canada and float out to sea.

Some New Englanders believe that this is what happened to Iceland, Hawaii and the Moon. What scientists call "plate tectonics" New Englanders call "frost heave."

One can never quite tell when they're joking, even in an abstruse scientific analysis like this.