If you want a brain bender:
There's an awesome island just off the tip of the mitten.
Mackinac Island, MI. (C is pronounced like a W)
There's a small city just on the mainland where the ferry to Mackinac Island comes from.
Mackinaw City, MI. (The W is still pronounced like a W)
If someone asks me where I am from, if I say New York, the assume the city.
Then we have where I live. The city of Johnstown is in the town of Johnstown. Gets confusing sometimes.
To stop the confusion of New York, the city, why not go by the borough name. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. All of which make the city.
Wow, I surprise myself in remembering them.
Why did they even change the name to New York? It was called New Amsterdam when my ancestors moved to Manhattan in 1608 to build windmills. Wasn't until 1680 or so that they relocated to Pa. with the rest of the Pennsylvania dutch settlers. I now live in the land of the pilgrim and all of the people around here are sure the first white people in America had to be the Pilgrims(1620). Many of my customers are direct descendants of the Mayflower. You ought to see the confused look on their faces when I tell them my family moved here in 1608.
vwcorvette wrote: Have you been to Street Road in Upstate NY?
Go by it every time on my to an from Vermont.
tr8todd wrote: Why did they even change the name to New York? It was called New Amsterdam when my ancestors moved to Manhattan in 1608 to build windmills. Wasn't until 1680 or so that they relocated to Pa. with the rest of the Pennsylvania dutch settlers. I now live in the land of the pilgrim and all of the people around here are sure the first white people in America had to be the Pilgrims(1620). Many of my customers are direct descendants of the Mayflower. You ought to see the confused look on their faces when I tell them my family moved here in 1608.
My family is close that. 1657 but some report say 1633. Some went to PA and others came to the lower Mohawk valley and settled Schenectady area. I go back to the PA group.
Knurled wrote: If you want a brain bender: There's an awesome island just off the tip of the mitten. Mackinac Island, MI. (C is pronounced like a W) There's a small city just on the mainland where the ferry to Mackinac Island comes from. Mackinaw City, MI. (The W is still pronounced like a W)
One holds the original French name, the other is the English translation. Although the original fort is on the mainland, just west of town... Fort Michilimackinac
SVreX wrote: My wife just corrected me. If you live in Flushing, you say, "I live in Flushing", and everyone knows that Flushing is in Queens. Got it?
You've probably heard it before but your wife is right. I've hardly ever heard someone say they were from Queens always what part. Brooklyn and they Bronx are pretty split whether they would say the boro or area, people from Manhattan usually just say New York, and Staten Islander's never mention what part because no one knows what the hell is out there.
tr8todd wrote: Why did they even change the name to New York? It was called New Amsterdam when my ancestors moved to Manhattan in 1608...
They did a poor job of keeping the British out.
Wall-e wrote:SVreX wrote: My wife just corrected me. If you live in Flushing, you say, "I live in Flushing", and everyone knows that Flushing is in Queens. Got it?You've probably heard it before but your wife is right. I've hardly ever heard someone say they were from Queens always what part. Brooklyn and they Bronx are pretty split whether they would say the boro or area, people from Manhattan usually just say New York, and Staten Islander's never mention what part because no one knows what the hell is out there.
Would you agree with my earlier statement that New Yorkers don't really have a name for the entire city (all 5 boroughs)? My wife and I were laughing about it, but I am pretty sure it is true.
When the rest of the country says, "New York City", they mean the whole city- all 5 boroughs, except they don't actually know what a borough is, and think all of New York is Manhattan.
New Yorkers don't refer to the whole City (all 5 boroughs) at once.
Isn't Flushing now called Floo-Shang because of the growing Korean population?
Remember having to differentiate Washington state and Washington, DC. Being around military there is a difference.
Also, I grew up in California. When asked I always said I'm from Southern California. Someone said once "as opposed to Northern California? There's a difference?" Yeah, at the time there was a difference. Doesn't seem to be much anymore though. And we considered anything north of San Francisco Northern California. Reality the part I grew up in is more central than south, north of Santa Barbara. Now that I live in Alabama, I joke that I'm from the south.............Southern California. 
It explains my accent.
SVreX wrote:Wall-e wrote:Would you agree with my earlier statement that New Yorkers don't really have a name for the entire city (all 5 boroughs)? My wife and I were laughing about it, but I am pretty sure it is true. When the rest of the country says, "New York City", they mean the whole city- all 5 boroughs, except they don't actually know what a borough is, and think all of New York is Manhattan. New Yorkers don't refer to the whole City (all 5 boroughs) at once.SVreX wrote: My wife just corrected me. If you live in Flushing, you say, "I live in Flushing", and everyone knows that Flushing is in Queens. Got it?You've probably heard it before but your wife is right. I've hardly ever heard someone say they were from Queens always what part. Brooklyn and they Bronx are pretty split whether they would say the boro or area, people from Manhattan usually just say New York, and Staten Islander's never mention what part because no one knows what the hell is out there.
I can't think of anything off the top of my head either, and now that so many areas have been taken over, gentrified and sometimes renamed a lot of people will give you the specific neighborhood they live in so they can look down on you when you aren't familiar with it. A while back a scrawny guy in too tight 70s gym shorts came up looking for directions to RAMBO. I had no idea what it was. A quick check of the Google told me it's the size of my backyard under an off ramp out in Brooklyn that someone made up recently.
914Driver wrote: Isn't Flushing now called Floo-Shang because of the growing Korean population?
It's been that way for years. When I started driving there one of the first complaints I received was someone saying if I was going to work somewhere I should learn the language.
I refer to it as Mos Eisley and take the Tappan Zee bridge to steer clear of the whole thing.
captdownshift wrote: In reply to Devilsolsi: More fun, I live in Baltimore county, my zip code is Baltimore as the "town" though I'm in the county.
Fun with zip codes. They don't follow county boundaries so you can have the same zip code exist in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Not sure if they ever cross state boundaries.
There are towns in Virginia that are further West than all of West Virginia. Windsor, ON, Canada is SOUTH of Detroit. That's right, part of Canada is below part of the US. Louisiana doesn't have counties...it has Parishes. Heck, I don't even live in a state, Pennsylvania is a Commonwealth.
A significant portion of Canadians live below the 49th parallel, actually.
iceracer wrote: If someone asks me where I am from, if I say New York, the assume the city.
If you're not from New York, then New York City refers to that big blob of people across the river from NJ. Boroughs, neighborhoods, whatever. And having grown up near New York State but not New York City, I would not assume that someone from New York was from...the blob.
The cute neighborhood names happen elsewhere, too. The RiNo (TM) 'hood in Denver is trying really really hard to go through all the stages of gentrification at once, bootstrapping from alternator repair shops to condo towers while trying to paint it all with a funky artsy veneer. It's mostly occupied by trustafarians as far as I can tell. They actually trademarked RiNo (TM) and have a mission statement.
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