OK, OK, I’ll be good from now on…I promise.
BTW, chique, a well-placed 
counts as flirting around these parts, you know.
Oops. Did I just say too much? 
Toki: you forgot floods, traffic from chewing up a lot of major surface streets all at once, hospitals, and really really really long freight trains (although maybe those just pass through town). And mosquitoes. Lots of them.
Oh, yeah. And what is arguably the world’s worst public transit system.
OTOH, it does have Astroworld, the Galleria, and Greenway Plaza. And when the space shuttle went up yesterday, the Johnson Space Center Mission Control took over. So Houston does have its good points.
Robin
Assuming I can go with towns that border me, too?
Artificial hearts (Abiomed, Inc)
Monopoly (well, up until 5 years ago, we had the Parker Bros. HQ)
Hasbro Interactive computer software
Teeni Drinks, AKA Lil Hugs
Gorton’s Fish Sticks
Tourism
I was born in Annapolis, MD, where people don’t make many things because they have a hard time seeing anything in front of them. It’s hard to manufacture anything when your nose is stuck waaaaaaay up in the air.
I was raised in St. Mary’s County, in southern MD, known for the BEST (and prolly only) Southern Maryland Stuffed Ham. We also have some of the best crabcakes on the planet (mebbe second only to Chrisfield, MD) and we are also known for Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs.
I currently live in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. All sorts of junk is made here. Mostly, however, this area is known for producing horrible drivers. Occasionally we export them to such places as Boston, New York and San Diego.
My home town’s major exports are… eh… hmm… Cows? Stir-crazy teens seeking to leave this town? Um… As soon as that diploma hits my hand… Me?
Coated groundwood in Minnesota and plants around the country? I’m guessing Bowater.
Tires (Cooper)
rebuild and refurbish Bradley Fighting Vehicls
rebuild and refurbish Multiple Launch Rocket System
makes army ordinance
My hometown (in NJ):
Minolta US HQ
Sharp Electronics World HQ (right down the road)
Shrinky-Dinks was based here
Texwipes
Western Union was HQd here too
that’s about all I can remember. . .
Tripler
And they made me. Their best export ever!!
my bologna has a first name…
my old hometown has a nuclear power plant.
My real hometown just makes a bad reputation crimewise.
I’m just posting here to try to bump this thread right above the $5.00 blowjob thread. (i like visual gratification)
Lessee:
Lansing, MI
[ul]
[li] laws (state capitol)[/li][li] lots of students (Michigan State University)[/li][li] cars (GM)[/li][li] And last, but certainly not least, until a few months ago (?), the only shop producing the anthrax vaccine.[/li][/ul]
Maybe wring and RalfCoder can provide some more.
Milk.
Cheese.
Sweet corn.
Apples.
Louisville, KY
We make millions every year on Kentucky Derby day. We also manufacture Louisville Slugger bats used in the major leagues at Hillerich & Bradsby.
Leeds, dirty and not very scenic but…
Clothes, we make clothes, if it says ‘Of Paris, New York, Milan and London’ on it and it was made in England then it was very likely made in Leeds or Castleford.
We got Burberry, York, Double 2, Centaur, and plenty of smaller ones.
At one time I guess we had around 50k employed just making clothes, never mind all the attendant peripheral industries.
We used to make tanks, Chieftains and Challengers.
Trains, we had the very first railway in the world at Middleton which still runs as tourist attraction.
Leeds was one of the first cities to be affected by the Industrial revolution.
I had hoped that posters would put up sites about thier home town something like this
At least that’s where I grew up.
Glass - flat sheet and auto
Scales - Toledo ™ Scales
Also, used to produce JEEPS.
I now live in Charlotte, home of …
OH YEAH, now I remember: Religious leaders (Billy Graham, The Bakkers) and new ways to lose your money to financial institutions (Nations Bank, Wachovia, First Union)
…other towns look great by comparison.
Oh, and over-educated youngsters to emigrate to other states as well.
Miracle-Gro!
Well, lessee.
Where I grew up doesn’t produce much (except corn) but it is the headquarters for “The Brass Buckle” (now known as “The Budkle”) which is a small chain of clothing stores. Before Gap and Old Navy started dictating what everyone should wear, the Buckle dictated what kids in my hometown should wear. I think the stores were mostly in the Midwest.
Now I live in Ann Arbor, which gave the world Borders. We’ve also got what used to be Warner-Lambert but is now Pfizer since they merged with/bought out Parke-Davis. Anyway, I think Lipitor came outta here. Not the product itself, but the research that made it possible. Also, University Microfilms International is here (yawn). I should never have bothered answering this thread, or I shoulda stuck with Lynchburg, VA (my home for seven years) which not only gives the world J.Crew, but also Fleet Enemas! And Jerry Falwell, which seems fitting giving the second product I mentioned.
Twine, commercial fishnet, cotton, and soybeans. What’s that? Yes, my hometown is a rural town in Louisiana. However did you guess?
I now live in Richardson, Texas, which makes odd decorative choices–I noticed a few opium poppies in the wildflowers they planted in the medians this year–and doomed startups.
Entertainers:
Cab Calloway
Raven Knight-Simone
Peter Falk
Vanessa Williams
Ex-Cons. (Ossining Correctional Facility / Sing Sing)
Aphorisms: Being sent up the river.
Movies. Hudson Hawk, for one.