# Cultural Oddities **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 2, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193 "2007-08-02T22:03:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/21 "2007-08-03T15:07:58Z")
[QUOTE=TheMerchandise] People in Montana give distance in time. “How long is the drive?” “Oh, about three hours.” [/QUOTE] This is a huge difference I’ve noticed between upstate NY and NYC. When we tell people in NYC “it’s about an hours’ drive away” they don’t always realize that means, at 70 mph, on the highway. It seems some of the people we deal with in our company have never even been out of the City. To them that means "Across town to the Bronx, in traffic) - i.e. less than 10 miles most of the time. They don’t realize how HUGE the state is. Don’t get me started on the soda/pop crap. The stuff you drink is SODA. The stuff you listen to is POP, Buffalonians! ---
**Author:** ![Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollo_s_Towel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/22 "2007-08-03T15:31:04Z")
[QUOTE=Laughing Lagomorph] New Yorkers and Bostonians for example are more likely to give distances as distances. [/QUOTE] Bostonians, maybe, but the only time I’ve ever heard NYC dwellers use distance in miles is when they are talking about highway travel somewhere out west. Otherwise, it’s always a time measure, specified with or without traffic: 3.5 hours to Boston, 2 hours to Albany, 6 hours to the eastern side of the Adirondacks, 2 hours to Philly, almost 3 hours to go down the shore, etc. [QUOTE=Anaamika] This is a huge difference I’ve noticed between upstate NY and NYC. When we tell people in NYC “it’s about an hours’ drive away” they don’t always realize that means, at 70 mph, on the highway. It seems some of the people we deal with in our company have never even been out of the City. To them that means "Across town to the Bronx, in traffic) - i.e. less than 10 miles most of the time. They don’t realize how HUGE the state is. [/QUOTE] Some people probably never have left the city, at least not while driving. But considering that driving across the Bronx, in traffic, might well take an hour, you could cut them a little slack. 😉 Actually, I had the “you describe distance by time?!” conversation with a friend from Madison, WI, so I guess that backs up TheMerchandise’s perspective on weirdness. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollo_s_Towel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/23 "2007-08-03T16:59:46Z")
So I see my follow-up got lost. Anyway, I realize that I mixed up TheMerchandise with other’s posts, so take back my weirdness comment above. :smack: But seriously, TM, how do you give directions to NYC visitors - do you really give them mileage? You don’t do the time/landmark kind of thing? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/24 "2007-08-03T17:13:22Z")
[QUOTE=Apollo’s Towel] Some people probably never have left the city, at least not while driving. But considering that driving across the Bronx, in traffic, might well take an hour, you could cut them a little slack. 😉 [/QUOTE] I do! It’s them I want to cut me a little slack. They add territories to us. Right now, fer example, we cover from Delaware-Columbia-Greene counties all the way north to Franklin & Clinton, and from Vermont on the east too Otsego and Delaware & Hamilton counties. That is a huge frickin’ area. And they are also planning on adding Ulster, Sullivan, Orange, Putnam, and Dutchess. When we protest "But it takes 1 hour 45 min to get to Poughkeepsie!’ they can’t seem to understand that this means it’s simply not feasible for us to add those territories to our chapter. ---
**Author:** ![tbdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@tbdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbdi)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/25 "2007-08-03T17:14:06Z")
[QUOTE=Caricci] I think if you ordered a milk shake in Rhode Island you’d be just fine - cabinet is a word mostly used by the old timers. But, in Newport Creamery you order an Awful Awful. [/QUOTE] and if you drink 3 you get 1 free; but don’t get a grinder with it or you’ll be too full. Depending on who you ask for a milk shake you may very well get milk and syrup with no ice cream. A frappe would be understood as a cabinet but a milk shake is different. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/26 "2007-08-03T17:15:43Z")
Ketchup chips are fabulous. Why don’t you people south of our border have them? ---
**Author:** ![Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollo_s_Towel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/27 "2007-08-03T17:37:21Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] I do! It’s them I want to cut me a little slack. They add territories to us. Right now, fer example, we cover from Delaware-Columbia-Greene counties all the way north to Franklin & Clinton, and from Vermont on the east too Otsego and Delaware & Hamilton counties. That is a huge frickin’ area. And they are also planning on adding Ulster, Sullivan, Orange, Putnam, and Dutchess. When we protest "But it takes 1 hour 45 min to get to Poughkeepsie!’ they can’t seem to understand that this means it’s simply not feasible for us to add those territories to our chapter. [/QUOTE] Ah yes, this I understand and appreciate. I had a similar scaling problem with relatives from Europe, who seemed to think that they could drive to Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, LA and San Francisco - AND do sightseeing - in a 2-week time span. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/28 "2007-08-03T17:41:32Z")
[QUOTE=Pullet] For some reason, people in California assume that many people in Hawaii are vegetarian. [/QUOTE] Ha! _Hawaii_, no less - land of people who are mysteriously unrepulsed by Spam.[sup]®[/sup] (There’s a cultural oddity for ya.) > [@AskNott](#): > > So the guy said to me, he said, “What’s this? (holding up his middle finger) Wednesday!” Then he counted off, “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.” It must be an Elwood thing. “See you next Tuesday.” ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/29 "2007-08-03T17:48:08Z")
We have a lot of “merged” French/English signs, such as “Parc Confederation Park” or “Rue Wellington Street”. This saves space on the sign where the main word is a proper name or is spelled the same in both languages. It helps that the French modifier is usually grammatically first and the English last. It looks strange until you get used to it, though. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/30 "2007-08-03T17:48:59Z")
[QUOTE=Apollo’s Towel] So I see my follow-up got lost. Anyway, I realize that I mixed up TheMerchandise with other’s posts, so take back my weirdness comment above. :smack: But seriously, TM, how do you give directions to NYC visitors - do you really give them mileage? You don’t do the time/landmark kind of thing? [/QUOTE] BTW - Great nom de plume 😛 ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/31 "2007-08-03T17:57:08Z")
[QUOTE=Laughing Lagomorph] Lessee…New England has frappes which I guess is what milkshakes are called most other places (I’m not into that whole scene so I might have gotten it wrong). [/QUOTE] A milkshake is syrup & milk, blended together. A frappe is a milkshake with a couple of scoops of ice cream. (# of scoops depends on size/shop). If you want a frappe, but order a milkshake, you’ll be dissapointed, and we won’t ask if you know what you’re ordering. If you don’t know what you ordered, you’re not from here, and not likely to come back anyway. (Used to work in an icecream shop, and had that fight with customers a few times. As I had an ass for a boss, it always ended with “you got what you ordered.”) ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/32 "2007-08-03T18:10:56Z")
[QUOTE=Laughing Lagomorph] Then there is the clam chowder schism. [/QUOTE] There is but one clam chowder. It does **not** have tomatoes in it. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/33 "2007-08-03T18:12:39Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Mudd] Ha! _Hawaii_, no less - land of people who are mysteriously unrepulsed by Spam.[sup]®[/sup] (There’s a cultural oddity for ya.) [/QUOTE] Because of the War, we have a fondness for canned foods - Hormel SPAM, Libby’s Vienna sausages and corned beef, Van Camp’s pork & beans, Coral tuna. Hawaii hadn’t fared well during the Depression and its malaise continued into the Forties. My grandmother used to tell stories of mixing flour into poi so as to stretch it out for a month, until it was mostly a ghostly white. Oddly the War brought a surfeit of canned food which the Military disdained, which us Islanders eat up. 😛 . ---
**Author:** ![Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Apollo\_s\_Towel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollo_s_Towel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/34 "2007-08-03T18:15:02Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] BTW - Great nom de plume 😛 [/QUOTE] Why, thank you! 😃 Ahh, Lee, what I wouldn’t do for you… ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/35 "2007-08-03T18:42:47Z")
[QUOTE=butler1850] (Used to work in an icecream shop, and had that fight with customers a few times. As I had an ass for a boss, it always ended with “you got what you ordered.”) [/QUOTE] If had I come in and asked for a Knickerbocker Glory, would it have been anything like [this](http://www.ice-cream-recipes.com/knickerbockerglory.htm) , or would you have just slapped me and called the cops? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/36 "2007-08-03T18:58:07Z")
[QUOTE=Apollo’s Towel] Ah yes, this I understand and appreciate. I had a similar scaling problem with relatives from Europe, who seemed to think that they could drive to Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, LA and San Francisco - AND do sightseeing - in a 2-week time span. [/QUOTE] Or my relatives from England, who wanted to do two things on their two-week driving holiday in Ontario: visit Niagara Falls, and visit the Rocky Mountains. :eek: The weird thing is, I got the same respinse _from a Detroiter_ when I was working there. This was duing the Calgary Olympics, and I flying back to Oshawa for the weekend. He said, “Are you going over to Calgary to take in some of the events?” I had to explain to him that Alberta is northwest of Maontana. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/37 "2007-08-03T19:06:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Or my relatives from England, who wanted to do two things on their two-week driving holiday in Ontario: visit Niagara Falls, and visit the Rocky Mountains. :eek: [/QUOTE] Oh c’mon, it’s perfectly possible to do that in two weeks. It just wouldn’t be much of a holiday! ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/38 "2007-08-03T19:13:44Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] If had I come in and asked for a Knickerbocker Glory, would it have been anything like [this](http://www.ice-cream-recipes.com/knickerbockerglory.htm) , or would you have just slapped me and called the cops? [/QUOTE] I’ve never heard of one of those before, but it looks a wee bit like an ice cream parfait. Orlando, Florida is the starting point (generally) where people start differentiating between sweet and unsweetened iced tea. South Florida primarily serves unsweetened tea, and somewhere above Ocala, Florida, the sweetened tea tastes a bit more like sugar water than actual brewed tea. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/39 "2007-08-03T19:16:02Z")
In Massachusetts, we put our feet up on the hassock and use drivers to change the TV channel. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193/40 "2007-08-03T19:52:16Z")
a couple I have experienced are. In Central Oklahoma: Soda-pop is pop. “The” is pronounced “thee”. In Southern California: Soda-pop is soda. “The” is pronounced “thuh” I was made fun of for both of those when we first moved to southern california in the 5th grade. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-oddities/414193.md?page=3)