MDMD: Meaningless line

[Otto]

http://freespace.virgin.net/john.cletheroe/usa_can/usa/mas_dix.htm

"On the one hand, the original Mason-Dixon Line, as surveyed by Charles
Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in 1763 to 1767, which is precisely defined and
restricted to the Pennsylvania/Maryland border (which runs east-west) and
that part of the Maryland/Delaware border which runs approximately
north-south. On this page I will call this "the original Mason-Dixon Line as
surveyed by Mason and Dixon".
On the other hand, the later various colloquial meanings given to the term
"Mason-Dixon Line", such as the border between the free states and the slave
states in the first half of the eighteenth century, or the border between
the Union states and the Confederate states during the American Civil War.
These meanings are inconsistent with each other and with the course of the
original Mason-Dixon Line as surveyed by Mason and Dixon. Opinions vary
considerably as to the precise route of the Line under this meaning."