That last map cracks me up. As far as I'm concerned, even Pittsburgh is borderline mid-west, and OH is unequivocally mid-west. Once you get to Pittsburgh and Buffalo, the gene pool changes, the food changes, the weather changes, the land changes, etc. I realize you can't really chop off these two cities from the rest of their states, so for me OH starts the mid-west. When you see roads in a grid pattern, you know you're no longer in the NE.