Map of the Tri-State Area.

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Dear Dr. Boli: I am in a fierce debate with my pekingese, which you may perchance be able to settle. What, objectively speaking, is the tri-state area? —Yours cordially, D. Wright, Esq.

Dear Sir or Madam: The answer to your question has varied over the long history of tri-state areas. When Charlemagne died, his empire was divided among his three sons, and many historians regard this division as the original tri-state area. In modern times, the most important tri-state area is, of course, the one surrounding Cumberland (Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia), but New York (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio), Cincinnati (Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana), Chandigarh (Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh), and Murtho (South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria) are also centers of important tri-state areas. Geographers now estimate that approximately 89% of the earth’s habitable land surface may be counted as belonging to a “tri-state area,” with the rest made up of various curious anomalies such as the Four Corners region or Iceland.

The leading objection against granting statehood to the District of Columbia has always been that doing so would create yet another tri-state area, which, added to the 138 already existing tri-state areas in the United States alone, might cause unnecessary confusion.