WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - State Facts: Illinois

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Nate is joined by Nick Blatner to talk all about Illinois. 

You're listening to State Facts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Nate Gallagher, and I'm joined by Hillsdale's resident Illinois, Nick Blatner. How you doing today, Nick? I'm good, Nate. How are you doing? Pretty good. So where are you from in Illinois? I'm from suburbs of Chicago. It's pretty well-known here, but Wheaton, Illinois. It's a little town southwest of Chicago.

Nice. How about the capital of Illinois? Springfield, if I'm not mistaken. Nice. You go there or no? I've never been there. Sometimes people would take trips in my high school like down there, but it's kind of a boring town from what I've heard. I mean, it's kind of overshodied by Chicago. It's a lot like New York. Yeah, that's fair.

When was Illinois admitted to the Union? It's in the 1800s, probably early. If I had to take a guess, it'd say like 1820, 1821, somewhere around there. 18, 18. Nice. So you were pretty close, which is not bad. And then how about what number was it? If I had to guess, I'd say probably around like 20.

21. Not bad. Nice. What is the population of Illinois as of 2021? Like 8 million maybe? 12 million, so pretty good. You guys were a big state, actually. Yeah.

How about the nickname of the state? No idea. Couldn't tell you. The prairie state. Ah, okay. A lot of prairie? It's not a lot. More cornfields than anything, really.

Especially down south, there's not a whole lot of anything down there. By Springfield, there's not, it's pretty secluded. How about the state pie? No idea. I have no idea. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie? Can't go wrong with a good pumpkin pie.

No. I'm more of an apple pie fan myself. That's fair. Apple pie is the better pie. Yeah. Absolutely. It's so solid. Get a little crust on there.

A little lattice. Yeah? Mm. How about the state snack? I have no idea. Go for it. Popcorn. Popcorn.

Not a lot of popcorn that I've, like, that's weird. I don't know. I haven't been to, like, any, like, popcorn shop, or, like, big, like, popcorn. Yeah. No, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I mean, you got a lot of sense to me. I mean, you got a lot of it. corn. Yeah, that's fair, but I'm pretty sure that's the wrong kind of corn.

There's different? Yeah, there's different types of corn. I didn't know that. Yeah. How about the state bird? Oh, I knew this one. It's a cardinal. Yeah, nice. We don't see a lot of cardinals, though, where I live, at least. More woodpeckers than anything. Maybe they're more down south. Yeah, but that might be. By the corn. How about the state flower? A violet. See a lot of violet and you're like your yard Yeah They kind of just pop up wherever

So like a more of a weed? Like are they a pest? It's more of like a wildflower per se How about the state insect? Like a grasshopper or something? I have no idea. The monarch butterfly. Hmm.

Interesting. I don't, I wouldn't really consider butterflies insects though. I mean like I don't know. I guess they are. I guess technically, yeah. I mean, if the legislature says so.

Yeah. What they say goes. How about the state tree? I have no idea. Maybe like a pine tree. The white oak. The white oak. It's a good tree.

I like the way those trees look. Are they like, is it white bark or white insides? Because sometimes trees are classified. It's white on the inside. Okay. It's not white on the outside. Okay. It looks like a normal tree on the outside.

but then it's like really tall and it has a lot of it kind of looks like maple leaves yeah how about the state animal I'm no idea I knew the bird but I don't know the animal the white-tailed deer hmm I hate okay deer make me angry sometimes one time when I was a kid our family like we were going on like a road trip or something and have you ever like in the Midwest, it's a very common thing to, like, watch out for deer while you're driving because they will run right in front of your car, and you will hit them. And then that is, it's just not fun for anybody. Um, that almost happened to us one time. It was really scary. Well, I think that's all the time that we have. Thanks for going on on the show, Nick. Yeah, of course. Anytime. I've been Nate Gallagher

with State Facts on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. See you next time.