Cecil, I dont own a home but I sympathize with your ant problem. That was hilarious but it would scare the heebe jeebez out of me.
Years ago, there was a McDonalds commecial, specific to Chicago’s market. McRib, Shamrock Shake, I dont know. But the narrator doing his best south side voice imitation made a comment that has stuck w/ me for years and Ive never been able to figure out if its true;
“Western Ave is the longest boulevard in the world.”
Is this true?
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, CAJPhoto, we’re glad you’ve found us. When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the column in question. Saves search time and keeps us all on the same page. Yeah, it’s front page now, but it will soon sink into the depths of the Archives…
Anyhow, here’s the link: http://chicago.straightdope.com/sdc2011ants.php
No biggie, you’ll know for next time, and (as I say), welcome!
Don’t have Guinness in front of me, but I believe it’s the longest continuous city street (not boulevard) within the boundaries of a single municipality. Western Ave. in L.A. is also long but passes through several different towns. Actually, I wrote the ant column, not Cecil - glad you enjoyed it. I was a little freaked myself.
The question is a staple of trivia buffs, but Chicago doesn’t get the gold medal.
Chicago’s longest street is Western, at 23.5 miles. The champion would be Ashland, which is 24.25 miles long, but a short portion of that is known as Clark Street (since Clark existed before Ashland was extended north of Devon).
However, Island Park, Idaho, is a long, skinny municipality incorporated in the 1940s because state law forbade liquor sales outside city limits. Main Street (U.S. 20) is 35 miles long and seems to be the world champion in this regard.
Probable runner-up: Phoenix’s 19th Ave, which stretches for 25.8 miles from the South Mountains to a development in the extreme northern reaches of the city. (The Phoenix Mtns. almost chop it off but the road curves around.)
Now to clarify, the question under discussion is “what is the longest continuous street with a single name within the limits of a single municipality?” Otherwise you get people claiming that Toronto’s Yonge Street or Manhattan’s Broadway continue to the Arctic Circle, merely because highways continue from that street out of town and northward.