Teresa Heinz Kerry's "un-American" remark continue to puzzle people (as does her outburst), but not much has been said about the accompanying (and possibly more puzzling) remark about "un-Pennsylvanian" traits.

Former Pennsylvanian Lionel Waxman posed a direct question:

Somehow, lost in the furor over Teresa’s comments the other day which included, “un-American” and “shove it,” was a peculiar phrase, “un-Pennsylvanian.” I claim some expertise in this area, being a refugee from Pennsylvania. It is unknown to me. Perhaps it is a recent addition to lexicon there. Perhaps it is a western Pennsylvania thing. I’m from Philly.

After cursory investigation yielded nothing, I am forced to resort to my readers. If you can contribute insight into this expression, I would appreciate your enlightening me.

Another editorial writer speculates that the remark touches on how much of Pennsylvania you own:

Heinz Kerry actually used three different weapons of rhetorical destruction. The day before "shove it," she accused unnamed opponents of "un-American traits." (Then she foolishly denied having said it.)

But Heinz Kerry didn't settle for un-American. She also called her unnamed enemies "un-Pennsylvanian." This went too far. Many of us feel that we are insufficiently Pennsylvanian, but we don't wish to be reminded of this. We do what we can. We buy Quaker State motor oil. We remind ourselves that Pittsburgh is the one on the left. But let's face it: We can never be as Pennsylvanian as a woman who owns a huge chunk of the state.

There's a lot of un-Pennsylvanianism in the country as a whole.

How can we ever hope to turn back the tide?

UDATE: Sean Kinsell left the following comment with Mrs. du Toit:

WTF is an “un-Pennsylvanian” trait? The desire to move to New Jersey?