# Please don't call it... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883 "2013-08-22T16:13:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/141 "2013-08-27T13:20:03Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Towns in Oklahoma: > > Miami: my-AM-uh > Alex: EL-luk > Lookeba: low-KEE-buh > Gotebo: GOH-tee-boh As an Oklahoma native I’ve been hearing people butcher town names all my life. I give most of them a pass because some of those indian names can be tough to pronounce. I’m from a town called Shattuck. (sounds like shadduck, I hear people say ShatOOk. I know that some people in San Antonio hate it when you say San Antone. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/142 "2013-08-27T13:24:06Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Thanks for the tip. > > A general rule I follow is that Hawaiian words are pronounced as they’re spelled. (As I said, I’ve never been there; but we have an office in Hawaii and get data from there.) Reminds me of that comedian who said he liked Hawaii, but it got to the point where he automatically tried to read everything as a Hawaiian word. (acting like he’s talking on the phone) “Yeah, I’m standing next to the Oooo ha Oooollll store. Oh wait, I’m sorry, it’s the U-Haul store!” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/143 "2013-08-27T13:35:14Z")
Captain Cook was high on quaaludes when he found the islands. He sailed up, leaned over the railing, and was like, ‘Oh, WAhoo!’ It’s hard to use text to say ‘Oh, WOW!’ like a person high on 'ludes would. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/144 "2013-08-27T13:36:44Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Reminds me of that comedian who said he liked Hawaii, but it got to the point where he automatically tried to read everything as a Hawaiian word. (acting like he’s talking on the phone) “Yeah, I’m standing next to the Oooo ha Oooollll store. Oh wait, I’m sorry, it’s the U-Haul store!” I know. There’s a Doper whose username I can’t help but read as ‘Tee-ah-cah-cay’. (But that’s actually Pratchett-derived. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/145 "2013-08-27T13:38:38Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > You changed the noun to a proper noun. Huh? For people who leave out “the” when referring to highways, “Interstate 405” (or “I-405”) is as much a proper noun as “Madison Avenue”. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/146 "2013-08-27T14:03:41Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Reminds me of that comedian who said he liked Hawaii, but it got to the point where he automatically tried to read everything as a Hawaiian word. (acting like he’s talking on the phone) “Yeah, I’m standing next to the Oooo ha Oooollll store. Oh wait, I’m sorry, it’s the U-Haul store!” After reading Tolkien, I want to pronounce the verb meaning “to jubilantly give thanks” as “Kell-uh-BRAH-tay”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/147 "2013-08-27T14:29:59Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Huh? For people who leave out “the” when referring to highways, “Interstate 405” (or “I-405”) is as much a proper noun as “Madison Avenue”. ‘Take the freeway south.’ ‘Which freeway?’ ‘The 405 [freeway].’ In this case, 405 is not being used as a proper noun. It’s being used as a modifier to ‘freeway’; i.e., just the number of the freeway. Interstate 405 or I-405 would be a proper noun, so you would not use ‘the’. ‘Take the avenue south.’ ‘Which avenue?’ ‘The Madison Avenue.’ Here, you’re just saying a generic avenue. Madison Avenue is a proper name; so, like I-405, you would not use ‘the’. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/148 "2013-08-27T18:19:51Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > Same. I’m a native of the Philadelphia (you can totally call it Philly) suburbs, and all the Welsh town names around here instantly separate the natives from the transplants. Uwchlan and Tredyffrin are two near me that always trip people up. My favorite shibboleths to separate the non-locals are Bala Cynwyd and Schyulkill (for pronunciation) and the Blue Route (for history.) 20+ year Delaware Valley transplant here, so I feel entitled to consider myself semi-local at least. ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/149 "2013-08-27T19:15:05Z")
Some tips for visitors to Virginia: “Norfolk” does not sound like the word “folk,” it sounds like the word “fuck.” Nor-fuck, or naw-fuck, if you want to be super authentic. “Botetourt” is pronounced bot-ih-tot. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/150 "2013-08-27T20:56:49Z")
> [@MemoryDump](#): > > Oh, and please don’t call San Luis Obispo San Louie Obispo or SLOw (although that one seems to have caught on with millennials–drives me crazy! I went to college in SLO in the early 80s, and lived in the town from '83 to '89. Everybody called it “SLO” or “SLO-town.” I sometimes called it “San Luis Abysmal,” but I got over that. 😃 I really do love the town. Others: I know it’s just me and I’m a minority on this, but stop calling San Francisco “The City”! It’s pretentious and annoying. Also, all the newscasters up here call the town of San Pablo “San PAB-lo” (with the “pab” rhyming with “jab.”) Maybe it’s right, I dunno, but I’d think it would be pronounced like the name (“POB-lo”) rather than like “pablum.” ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/151 "2013-08-27T21:28:47Z")
I love knowing stuff like this, but I have a couple of problems here. > [@Grestarian](#): > > Wikipedia says it was named after Saint Bonaventure, but local place-name publications list it as The City of the Fine View of the Mountains of Saint Gabrielle – La Ciudad de la buenaventura de los montañas de San Gabriel. This was shortened to Buenaventura, Buena Ventura, and now most people just call it Ventura. I guess the view isn’t so fine any more, what with all the smog obscuring things…:mad: Buenaventura means good luck or good fortune. A good view would be buena vista, no? I can’t find any reference to this name anywhere, and Richard Henry Dana also told the story of it being named after St. Bonaventure. Where are you finding a different origin story? > [@](#): > > Back in the 1970’s \*The 405 \*was called the Ventura bypass. It tried to skirt around L.A. (which has now outflanked it) and ends in San Fernando (which is technically L.A. but Ventura’s Simi Valley is just a canon-shot away. Then it became the Ventura Highway and the group America wrote a nostalgic song about it. Now-a-days it’s essentially a long parking lot with small businesses packed tightly on either side. ☹ I lived in L.A. during the 1970s, although I didn’t drive. (Bastards wouldn’t license me until I turned 16, and then I used the license to drive the hell away from there.) I don’t remember I-405 being called anything but the San Diego Freeway. U.S. 101 is the Ventura Freeway, but I don’t remember anything being called the Ventura Highway or the Ventura Bypass. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/152 "2013-08-27T21:30:15Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I know it’s just me and I’m a minority on this, but stop calling San Francisco “The City”! It’s pretentious and annoying. THIS is the city: Los Angeles, California. . ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/153 "2013-08-27T22:46:37Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I know it’s just me and I’m a minority on this, but stop calling San Francisco “The City”! It’s pretentious and annoying. > > ." I said the same thing upthread. It’s more or less one crappy rag of a paper that continues this. I like to ask “which City- LA, San Jose, Sacramento?”😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883.md?page=7)