Maybe they just want people to feel warm…
The reason for the heavy fire coverage on Eyewitness News was supposedly to appeal to the HUGE subculture of avid volunteer fireman in Buffalo’s blue collar suburbs, and thus boost ratings. Irv would find a fire in Jamestown, Olean or even Pennsylvania if there weren’t any in the Buffalo area the night before.
Good 'ol Cheektowaga. Those living in the town often pronounce it “Chick-uh-tuh-VAG-uh der”. The rest of Western New York calls it “Cheektovegas” and “Cheektowarsaw.”
In suburban Buffalo, there isn’t just one Tonawanda, but three - the Town of Tonawanda, the City of Tonawanda, and the City of North Tonawanda.
Well, whaddya know? I just went digging through my photos from that trip, and in it I have a few pics that were taken at that stop. In the background of two of them, you can see a sign on a building across the street: “Jim Scanlon’s House of Bread, Harrisville, NY.” How cool is that? Talk about a small world! 
Cartooniverse, what land deal is this? I haven’t heard anything myself, and now I’m very curious.
Watertown? Upstate? I grew up in Dannemora so I know upstate, eh.
How about Schaghticoke? I also like Canadaigua.
I was going to post a list of Michigan’s tongue twisters, till in the course of googling I came across
“Felch Mountain” :eek:
Suddenly, the likes of Ishpeming, Meauwataka, and Ossawinamakee Beach seem less…postworthy.
The one I like, since nobody who isn’t familiar with the area ever pronounces it correctly, is
Nunda
This is pronounced “Nun-Day”.
I keep hoping that there’s a Nunda Hyundai, which ought to rhyme, but wouldn’t look that way to the uninitiated.
(It’s up near Rochester, wehich also has the generally mispronounced Chili (Chi-Lie") as well.)
Guilty as charged.
I had a conversation with a friend from Queens that went something like this:
Friend: My parents have a summer place Upstate.
Me: Really? Whereabouts?
Friend: Monticello.
I fell out of my chair laughing.
Email me. It involves enough detail that I’m not comfortable writing it on the Internet. 
However, it’s fascinating and I’ll be glad to send the info your way.
Well, if you mean mispronunciation, there’s always Valatie, which no one out of the Capital District knows how to pronounce correctly.
It’s pronounced as though it was spelled “Valatia” – Va-lay-sha
As for confusion, there’s also Quaker Street, which is a small village (with its own post office). Further, there is no Quaker Street in Quaker Street.
My wifes brother lived in Valatia, correcting me every time I said VAL-A-TEE. He never caught on that I was screwing with him.
Another place that stuck in my mind was SKANEATELES.
Some years ago, Hillary Clinton was campaigning for Senator, and stopped for breakfast there. TV and the papers made a big deal of its pronunciation, and it is SKINNY ATLAS.
Sorry…No time to go back and verify who said what…To the poster who mistakenly located Skaneateles near the Hudson - perhaps you were thinking of Schenectady?
And I’m surprised that our poster from Orange County didn’t point out to the one that mentioned Florida, Mass. that there’s a Florida in that county.
I was going to mention Canandaigua, also, and Ronkonkoma, although, for the latter I couldn’t remember if it was in N.Y. or N.J.
My personal favorite is SCAJACQUADA Creek outside of Buffalo.
`It’s not in Upstate New York, but the “Meatiest Indian Place Name” I know is the original name for Webster Lake in Webster, MA, near where I worked until just recently. The name is the longest lake name anywhere, and the fifth longest word in the world, according to the Guiness folks.
The Indian name is:
Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
From this site:
http://www.worcestermass.com/pronounce/webster2.shtml
We have:
History Notes:
Indian word meaning “the boundary lake” (MGB, 1932) and “You fish on your side, I fish on my side, nobody fishes in the middle.” (US-T121). In 1642, Woodward and Saffery, the first surveyors of the Mass. Bay Colony, called it “The Great Pond.” In 1645, Conn. Gov. John Winthrop called it “The Lakes of Quabage.” After a 1707 survey, John Chandler recorded the name as “Chaubunnagungamoug.” According to Wise Owl, chief of the Chaubunagungamaug band of Nipmucks, Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg was an Indian word for a neutral fishing place near a boundary - a meeting and fishing spot shared by several Indian tribes. A more popular, and some say, fanciful, interpretation is that it meant “You fish on your side, I fish on my side, nobody fishes in the middle”.
Variant Names(s):
Chabanakongkomom Pond
Chaubunagungamaug Pond
Chaubunghungamaug Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaug Lake
Char-gogg-a-gogg-man-chogg-a-gogg Lake
Chargoggaggmanchaugaggchabunagungamaug Lake
Chargoggaggoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaug Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchaugaggoggchaubunagungamaug Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamau Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg Lake
Chargoggagoggmanchoggagogg Lake
Chargoggagogmanchaugagogchaubunagungamaug Lake
Chargoggagogmanchogagog Lake
Chargoggagogoggmanchauggagogghaubenagungamaugg Lake
Chargoggogoggmanchauggagoggchaubenagungamaugg Lake
Chaubunagungamaugg Lake
Chaubunagungamauk Lake
Chaubunnagungamoug Lake
Chaugogagogmanchaugagogchaubunagungamaug Lake
Webster The Great Pond
The Lakes of Quabage
Webster Lake
Latitude: 420330N
Longitude: 0715130W
Map
Bitch. You win. Man, that’s a tasty one.
For the record, I missed the Florida reference, and yeah it’s in Orange County. Ronkonkoma is on Long Island. ( Might be Nassau, might be Suffolk county. Not sure ). A branch of the LI Railroad is called the Ronkonkoma Branch.
Slight hijack:
Actually, Scajaquada Creek is under Buffalo.
Can Shagnasty at least get an honorable mention for it? 
:smack:
Eeeep!
I missed that, somehow. Sorry, Shag
Although I do think I deserve points for actually having been there.