\G      # when progressively matching a string 
                # with the 'g' flag 
                # you can use the \G anchor to 'hold' the postition 
                # just after the previous match
                # helps regex remember where it left off
                # allows you to go through a list efficiently
                # without using split or looping
                # Mastering Regular Expessions (p 236 - 240)
        \s*     # matches zero or more spaces that 
                # may come before before a name-value pair
        (\w\w)  # match two word characters (alphanumeric plus '_')
                # parentheses assign matched letters to $1
                # this is the state abbreviation
        \s+     # match one or more spaces between name-value pair
        (\w+    # match one or more word characters
         (?:    # ?: allows for cluster-only parentheses, 
                # no capturing and doesn't assign to $3
          \s\w+ # match one space then one or many word characters
         )?     # match zero or one of these clusters
                # allows match of state names with mulitple words
                # ie New York, West Viginia
                # does not match States with three words, 
                # like 'Northern Mariana Island' 
                # change trailing ? to * to match those '(?:\s\w+)*'
        )       # assigns state name to $2
        /gx;    # end of regex
                # g flag for global search
                # x flag to allow whitespace in regex
                # might also want to use c flag
                # c flag causes the match position to be retained 
                # following an unsuccesful match
                # see: Effective Perl Programming (p.63)
                #
                # the complete regex looks like this:
                #
                # /\G\s*(\w\w)\s+(\w+(?:\s\w+)?)/g;
                #