March 8, 2005
What's In A Name?
Last week, in an email thread, someone mentioned "SLO" as a place name here in CA and I drew an absolute blank. Turned out it was San Luis Obispo. Other than a brief stint as a teenager in Canada/Washington state, I've lived in California my entire life, and it was a new one on me (maybe it's a SoCal thing). It reminded me of a few months back when a friend of mine from the East Coast came to visit and was talking about "the PCH". Now, the only thing "PCH" means to me is the Port Charles Hotel form General Hospital, and I figured that wasn't what she meant! Turned out she was referring to the Pacific Coast Highway. To me, it's "One" or "Hwy One", or the really long way to Hearst Castle (when I worked in the hotel business I spent a lot of time explaining to touristos just how long it was really going to take them to "pop down the coast to Hearst Castle and back". ). Then there's "Marriott's". That's how you can tell how long someone has lived in the area: when they call Great America amusement park (currently run by Paramount), "Marriott's" (as in Marriott's Great America, which was what it started out as in the seventies) instead of "Great America". And you can gauge nativeness by the responses as well.
What regional shorthand do they use where you live?
Little bit later: Talking with two coworkers who are from the south end of the state, and they say that "SLO" is more of a SoCal thing. And on an unrelated note, we just realized that everyone that works here is a native of the state. Kind of odd in a state where everyone is supposed to be from somewhere else.
Posted by Ithildin at March 8, 2005 10:56 AM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE
I've always called Great America "Marriott's" from my days living in Monterey (early 80s). Too funny.
As for regional shorthand here in the DC area, I'm sure there's a ton, but I'm drawing a blank right now. We do call Northern Virginia "NoVa". But that's the only one I can think of at the moment.
Posted by: jen at March 8, 2005 11:40 AMHere in Oklahoma, if you say "We're going to the City" it generally means the capital of the State, Oklahoma City. It's the biggest city in the state and it also happens to be where I now reside and work.
Where I went to college is Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, and it's considered a commuter college. We always told/tell everyone that we go to UCLA, University of Cameron Lawton Area.
Posted by: Tina at March 8, 2005 12:06 PMI used to live in San Luis Obispo. I refer to it as "SLO" so naturally, it's easy to forget that someone might have no idea what I'm talking about.
Incidentally, if you ever have a chance to spend some time there, do so. It's a great town & area, though very expensive.
Posted by: Ross at March 8, 2005 12:14 PMOh, I've been to San Luis Obispo many times, just never heard of the shorthand for it.
Posted by: Ith at March 8, 2005 12:23 PMThat's funny. I also think of Great America as Marriott's since that's what it was when I was a girl. I have a picture of me and Bugs Bunny standing in front of the carousel. Can't do that anymore either....
In Fresno you can tell if someone is a native by how they refer to the county hospital. If they call it "county" or "VMC", they're a native, if it's "UMC", a they're a transplant (or they work there). In NC, you're a native if you pronounce the state's name with 4 syllables and a transplant if you use 5. (that's north car'lina vs north carolina)
Posted by: caltechgirl at March 8, 2005 12:42 PMin Chicago...Lake Shore Drive... LSD
locals refer to highways by their names, not numbers...as in 94 south of downtow is the Dan Ryan or Ryan expwy, 90 out toward OHare is the Kennedy and 290 west from downtown is the Eisenhower or Ike., there are half a dozen other names which are used in traffic reports, to thoroughly confuse out of towners driving in listening to traffic reports and trying to figure out which name goes with which highway.
Posted by: jimf at March 8, 2005 1:15 PMJust an FYI, but the San Luis Obispo airport 3 letter code is SLO (like for luggage tags)
Posted by: wendy at March 8, 2005 4:43 PMI'm from Rmd, a suburb of Vcr. Not to be confused with Vcr Is where Vic is. Sometimes we pop across the line to Pt B.o.b. or around the LM, usually via the 99. I'm not on the North Shore, or from PoCo, or things would be really confusing.
Translated, Richmond (also known as Lulu Island), Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Victoria, Pt. Roberts WA, Lower Mainland (Greater Vancouver), Hwy 99 which eventually turns into I-5. North Shore is North Vancouver and lastly Port Coquitlam.
Too funny.. you get so used to using the short cuts they don't even sound short anymore.
Posted by: Sue at March 8, 2005 4:44 PMFrom my days at Pacific Palisades in law school, I thought Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway - was the "PCH." As a Fresnan, SLO has always been SLO. The VMC was also CHCC. One of the funniest difference is the pronounciation of "Visalia" which is pronounced "Vie-sail-yuh" but which got transliterated in LA and the TV show "24" as "Vi-zal-ee-uh."
When I heard that on "24" I wondered how anyone could get it wrong.
Posted by: Peter Sean Bradley at March 8, 2005 8:53 PMWell, I live in an unincorporated suburb of New Orleans, named Metairie. If I were speaking instead of typing, those would be N'Orlins and Metry. The compass directions here are Lakeside (North), Downtown or Down (East), Riverside (South), and Uptown or Up (West). The Huey P. Long Bridge is the Huey-P or just the Huey. The I-10 bridge over the Industrial Canal is the High-Rise. I-10 over the Lake (Pontchatrain) is called the Twin-Span. I-10 over the swamps between Kenner & LaPlace is The Spillway because part of it is over the Bonnet Carrie Spillway (Pronounced Bonny Carry)between the River & the Lake. (Basically, the levee there has doors that can dump part of the River into the Lake to prevent flooding)
Posted by: Cybrludite at March 9, 2005 9:37 AMOne of the two things that used to bug me most about X-files was that they always had to "return to Washington." NOBODY who lives here calls the city, or even the area, "Washington"; it's DC or DC area.
Jen--take note. I even noticed in your note that you used "DC area" rather than "Washington, DC" or "Washington area" (hehehe).
Posted by: Lornkanaga at March 9, 2005 12:16 PM
Here in MI, they use their hand to show where they live or travel. MI is shaped like a mitten, so the hold up their right hand and point on their palm. There's a little peninsula east of the lake next to Canada, that's the thumb. Then there are those from Up North (fingertip area), and the Yoopers. They're from the U.P., the Upper Peninsula which is a little swatch of land that's actually above the hand and looks like it should belong to Wisconsin!
Posted by: Jema at March 8, 2005 11:15 AM