In case you haven't heard...

The annual list of the 10 most satisfied states and the 10 most dissatisfied states has just been released by the Gallup Poll people.

A new #1--North Dakota, where the average satisfaction--between 0 and 100--is 70.1. Hawaii had been on top for years. I guess all that oil money and the boom in North Dakota's economy means a lot more to people there than warm breezes an the Pacific ocean.

(I once knew a priest in CT who was from North Dakota. Once, when he told someone that at a diocesan meeting somewhere, the other person said {I swear they did!} "Oh, didn't you miss the ocean?" My friend replied, "since we haven't had one for over a billion years we've sort of got used to it." People on the east coast can sometimes be dim--it's like that old New Yorker cover where not much exists west of the Hudson.)

The most dissatisfied state is, for the fifth year running ('drum roll....) West Virginia. I guess 300,000 people not yet knowing whether they can drink their water and Multi-national corporations knocking the top off of your mountains and ruining you valleys can be a bit dissatisfying.

One thing I did notice though--7 of the top 10 are blue states and only one of the bottom 10 is. Just me noticing stuff.

Connecticut must be somewhere in the middle 30, though the full results weren't listed. Besides all that, North Dakota was 70.1 and West Virginia was 60.1, so the other 48 were all within 10 of being the top or bottom. Close, I'd say.