During radio broadcasts of Chicago Cubs games, Old Style Beer has a series of commercials that tell you how to describe the refreshing taste of Old Style if you’re from a certain location in the Chicago Metro area.
The two that I don’t understand are:
How to Describe the Refreshing Taste of Old Style if You’re From Ravenswood: “This Old Style is more refreshing than a parking space without chairs.”
and
How to Describe the Refreshing Taste of Old Style if You’re From Edgewater Beach: “This Old Style is more refreshing than a summer without [sounds like] Alewives.”
Parking spaces on the street are at a real premium in Ravenswood. You need a resident’s permit for most of them. In the winter, the residents of the area shovel the snow out of “their” spaces and leave folding chairs in the cleared spots so no one else parks there. People have been shot for stealing these spaces (ok, maybe not actually shot, but as far as the residents are concerned, it’s a killing offense.)
Alewives are stinky dead fish that wash up on the beach. You can’t walk along some beaches without stepping all over the damn things.
Ravenswood’s a neighborhood - lots of two and three flats and apartments, very few single family homes. So there’s about 6 cars for every 1 parking space.
I’ve never heard “alewife” as a singluar, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lone alewife - they’re always seen in bunches of ick.
Yep, alewives are always encountered in bunches, so the singular form really isn’t necessary.
The problem is that they’re a non-native - oceanic - species that invaded the lake, and the temperature changes that Lake Michigan go through tend to cause major die-offs at least once a year. All those corpses wash up on the shore, and then they start to rot. I grew up a quarter-mile from the shore, and each spring you got used to the nasty fish smell for a couple weeks or so.
Here’s an article that describes how bad the problem used to be, before salmon (which feed on alewives) were stocked in Lake Michigan:
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Just as an aside, I grew up in a part of New York state that’s interesting to linguists, as some of the local dialect is straight out of the 17th century, including pronounciation. Alewive is said as “elly,” and out in the Northwest Woods, there’s two roads - “Elybrook” and “Alewive Brook.” Confuses the hell out of the tourists who ask a local for directions out there, as both roads are pronounced the same!
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I’ve lived in Ravenswood and Rogers Park and the practice of saving parking spaces is common in both areas (according to Da Mare it’s probably more common than that) and while I don’t personally do it, because I think it’s WRONG!!!, I also won’t move somebody else’s furniture because it’s also wrong to have my car vandalized.
Except, if it’s late at night and there are no other parking spaces available I figure, hey, if they haven’t reclaimed the space by now, tough nuckles. So far I’ve never had any problems.
One thing I absolutely won’t tolerate is saving a parking space in the middle of summer. I’ve seen it and I’ve tossed folding chairs onto the curb and parked right there. Let 'em try something with me.
I agree. I mean, it’s one thing to dig through three feet of heavy, packed, dirty, urinated upon (and not just by dogs) winter snow - I can sort of see the effort earning you “your” spot. But in summer? Bugger off.
