Why Mainers bristle at Massachusetts

When one of our more erratic state legislators proposed splitting Maine in two (several times), he proposed the southern portion be called "North Massachusetts," which in Maine is something akin to calling an Irish person English. But why do we Mainers have such animus toward the Bay State?

I address this in my second book, The Lobster Coast, but it's also the topic of my bi-monthly column over at Working Waterfront, if you want to save the fifteen bucks for the whole story.