What's amazing is that those abbreviations from postal zip codes have endured in the U.S. long after people stopped using snail mail. Longer than the original predecessor of telephone area codes -- Butterfield, Eight, anyone? -- or people believing that the first three digits of phone numbers (after country code) is necessarily tied to a geographic area anymore.
Why don't Europeans say they are from the European Union rather than their country? Why are the British more apt to say Scotland, Wales, or some more obscure political division like Suffix? Because they have distinct cultures, identities, and in many cases, separate governments with considerable powers of their own.
