I knew some people who lived in Graham. At least one of them was a decent person. Another one, though, he told everyone he was born on the 13th of January, it was a Friday and the moon was full – he was the guy who, when driving around in the middle of the night, would blow through stops at full speed on the premise that the less time he spent in an intersection the less likely he would be to hit another car.
If you start from the upstream premise of not trying to be cautious and just playing the odds blindly, he’s right. Stupid, but right. 
is as does.
LOL, I thought the same thing.
Graham is pretty rural, as it’s out there fairly far (right by Northwest Trek in fact), but Graham isn’t that close to Puyallup; Puyallup is closer to Tacoma than it is to Graham. The story says that the people lived in Puyallup. I’m not sure how rural that could be.
The guy who did all that killing definitely seemed evil though.
Specifically, the story says “near Puyallup”. Here’s another source which confirms that it was in Graham.
ETA: Looking up the street name, this apparently happened in a subdivision a few miles south of Puyallup city limits, but just north of Graham city limits, so I guess “exurban” would probably be the most accurate descriptor.
Pretty close, but the second syllable is more of an “all” than an “al”. It was the first of western Washington’s many unpronounceable place names that I encountered when I moved up here and there was about six months or so where I avoided saying it out loud while I waited to hear other people say it first.
“Sequim”, on the other hand, embarrassed me more than once. (It’s one syllable and the E is silent; “squim”, not “SEE-quim” like you might think.)
For pronouncing “Puyallup”, just listen to this song!
Hm, for some reason I’m hearing it my mother’s voice, but she was a lifelong Oregonian so maybe she had it slightly wrong.
eta: Hm again, the song seems to agree with me. Oh well, not work arguing over. I’m reasonably certain I’ll never go there.
I’ve lived in western Washington most of my life and I’ve heard it both ways. Usually “al” but occasionally “all”. I don’t consider either to be “wrong”.
Also, the Puyallup Fair commercials have been on TV every year most of my life and pronounce it “al” as in the video, which at least cements it in my mind and maybe many other Washingtonians.
(It was officially renamed to the Washington State Fair years back and I don’t know if you’ll hear that song anymore on TV.)
Wikipedia also cites the “al” pronunciation for what it’s worth.
Has this thread become all Puyallup, all the time?
We could switch from Puyallup to Enumclaw, but then it would be better discussed in the Omnibus Stupid MFers thread, owing to Mr. Hands
Until more evil pops up somewhere in the news to talk about.
At least we aren’t talking about food in a Pit thread for once.
Says the being with the Trump-colored fingers …
Hey now, Oompa-Loompas are also Trump-colored but they are hard-working immigrants who deserve our respect. Don’t judge people by the color of their skin!
In 1985, my submarine spent three months in drydock at Puget Sound. On liberty, I saw a LOT of freeway signs, the ones featuring the place name “Puyallup” being prominent among them.
It warms the cockles of my heart to learn that newcomers to the region will henceforth be able to accurately pronounce the city’s name. “Washington State Fair,” while longer, is at least able to be unambiguously spoken without taking a PNWSL* class (unlike Puyallup).
*(Pacific Northwest as a Second Language)
In case anyone is confused, it was the state fair that was renamed from the Puyallup Fair to the more boring (but easier to pronounce and understand) Washington State Fair.
And so the song will no longer be relevant in ads.
They didn’t change the municipality’s name to “Washington State Fair?”
Welp, for the foreseeable future, I guess I’ll be staying within shouting distance of Vancouver when I cross the Columbia River.
I still think the coolest road name in Washington is Toledo-Vader Road near Vancouver. I imagine Toledo Vader as the name of a Canadian archaeologist adventurer who uses the Dark Side of the Force.
I am still uncertain of the correct pronunciation of Hoquiam. There may be some dispute.
I’ve been saying “ho-KWEE-umm” and nobody has corrected me, but that might just be because nobody else is sure either.
In 45 years, that’s the only pronunciation I’ve ever heard.
Speaking of Puyallup pronunciation, I once saw a commercial or something that jokingly mispronounced it “PYOO-eee-loop”, so I still pull that out to annoy my kids every so often.
I’ve also been informed that the native pronunciation would be “pyallup” (truncated first syllable) but that ship has sailed.