When south isn't South

Is Florida part of the South? It is, right? Of course not. Maybe. Probably.

FiveThirtyEight.com tried to figure it out a few weeks ago. The Washington Post did, too. FiveThirtyEight's survey revealed strong agreement that Georgia is part of the South (89 percent of respondents) but more than 30 percent of respondents didn't rate Florida — which, it shouldn't need saying, sits squarely to the south of the Peach State — as part of the Southern collective. Obviously, for many people, "Southern" is not a geographical description but a cultural one.

Here, then, is my stab at mapping the North/South dividing lines in Florida. Mind you, I'm a relative newcomer (circa 2005), and I was a few beers in at the Tampa Independent when it occurred to me to try to set the record straight. Did I nail it?

If you can do better, send it along:

Ben Montgomery Tampa Bay Times 490 First Ave. S St. Petersburg, FL 33701