It’s a bit like Seattle “freeze” for some folks.
We used to be genuinely nice but this was abused too many times. We’ve learned to be very cautious.
Nice thing about being in Northern Wisconsin this time of year is no fishtabs. Fucking Illinois shit heads towing a boat. We do have fishtast, fucking Illinois shit heads towing a snowmobile trailer.
Well that’s a new one. To me, “Italian fries” means shoestring fries with herbs and Parmesan cheese.
That’s what I would have expected as well from “Italian fries” – Italian-seasoned fries.
I did the NYT survey a few years ago and it gave me Yonkers/New York/Jersey City. I’m actually from the Bronx, so I don’t figure I’m apt to improve on that result. People from elsewhere sometimes express surprise when I say I’m from here, though they don’t seem to have a particular other place in mind.
Regarding “mayn’t”, I’ve only ever heard it from Felix Unger. “I can’t? Of course I can…aha, you mean I mayn’t!”
I got Worcester and Providence. Well…I’ve spent 3/4ths of my life in New Hampshire, but I did in fact live reasonably close to both Worcester (within 40 miles of up until age ten) and Providence (within 8 miles of in my late teens) during that other 1/4th of my life, so close enough.
The first time I took it I got Milwaukee even though I’ve spent less than a week in the western Great Lakes region. When I took it earlier this month the map had two loci, one, Milwaukee still, and the other, more accurately, Rochester NY, which I’ve spent less than a year in, but it is sort of an average between where my mom grew up and where I did, so that one makes sense.
Hehheheh, no… I actually truely love those oldschool names. I feel they have more substance than the diminutives of today (everyone is 1syllable-y, it seems.)
Similarily, men’s (or whatever of the ever growing rainbow of Things I Don’t Quite Understand…) Names like Reginald, Winthrope, and, Theodore are equally awesome.
So no hate on Constance! It is a very dignified and powerful name, just not one currently associated with youth I guess?
(Kinda like how every guy named Rex is tough - I’ll see myself out now!)
I lived in Pittsburg for two years in the late eighties and would furrow my brow when a local would say, “that needs painted,” for example, instead of “that needs to be painted.”
No, I didn’t become a Stillers fan.
I have Pittsburgh relatives, and my brow hasn’t stopped furrowing.
But how 'bout when a local says “That needs red up.”
My aunts used to say “we’re going by Marge’s house”, and a family friend would ask “why don’t you stop in for a visit?”
ETA in Chicago.
My aunts (who would ‘go by dere’ often) would have smacked 'em for that (if a minor child) or given them an icy dutch aunt glare.
As a kid, you expect your parents to do things right, but my mom would always say “I’m going by the market, need anything?”
I used to reply “Well, if you go BY the market, turn around and go back to it and STOP this time. Then get some peanut butter.”
This was in Mi’waukee, WizGonsin… the pronunciation of which is a regionalism of its own.
Heh. Said family friend is a Priest, so smacking wasn’t gonna happen. 
My aunts would have glared at a priest, but not a predikant. 
Speaking of regional expressions, I had to look that one up; though maybe it’s national, not regional.
It occurs to me that I’ve got an extremely regional example, though it needs a bit of explanation:
Grapevines are grown on a trellis; in this part of the world, at least, generally a trellis made by driving a post into the ground about every 15’ and stringing wires along the row of posts. A large vineyard will have rows long enough to have many posts in each row. When and where I first started working in vineyards, the distance from one post to the next was called, logically enough, a postlength. ‘Short rows down at that end of the vineyard, only about ten postlengths’ or ‘Judy’s fast, she can prune x postlengths an hour’ – that sort of thing.
One year, we had somebody from Cornell, a bit over an hour’s drive away, come out to teach us something or other, I’ve forgotten what. He didn’t say “postlength”, he said “panel”. After he left, we had a good snicker over that; we thought Cornell had decided “postlength” didn’t sound academic enough and had come up with “panel” because they thought it sounded more formal.
Then I stopped working over there, and took a job in a vineyard in the next county over, about halfway to Cornell from where I’d been working. And I discovered that everybody over there said “panel”, and apparently had been doing so for generations.
Makes perfect sense in Afrikaans.
I was in my 20s before I found out other countries don’t have all the robots South Africa does.
but i like peas… 
. You ever notice tho that hamburger/tuna/meat helpers have ripped off most of these regional recipes to the point that if you made them a lot of people might assume oh you made tuna helper …
i grew up in california and indiana and i use to/by interchangeably …
i have funny story here’s some background first Ok in california most liquor stores are pretty much convenience stores with all the hard liquor on shelves behind the counter and anyone of any age can go in them
Well in indiana in the 90s a liquor store only sold a few snacks party supplies enough soft drinks to use for mixers and the rest of it is hard booze and no one under 21 can go in them
Well I go back one summer for a visit … im about 16 or so and im up early one morning so i decide to ot go pet a paper and some donuts from the store down the road a bit …I walk in the store and get the items i went for totally oblivious to the signs on the door saying i couldnt be there
Well when the cashier comes out and sees me she starts having a fit and trys to kick me out… and im there confused as hell becuase all i wanted was a newspaper donuts and a coke …So im slightly yelling back … and them the manager comes out …looks me over and says " boy youre not from here are ya ?" I say no im from ca and he says thought so … and i say howd ya guess … he replied CA is one of the few places hes been where a kid would be in a liquor store at 9 am
and after explaining the law to me he lets me buy my items …
Nightshadea, punctuation is your friend. Really. I gave up after the first “sentence.”