# Southern California-isms **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573 "2005-12-29T15:11:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/41 "2005-12-29T22:50:14Z")
With regards to highway numbers, everyone in Seattle area usually says “I-5”, “I-90” or “90”, “99”, “520” and either “405” or “the 405”. For some reason, only the 405 gets a “the”. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/42 "2005-12-30T00:05:41Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Santa Barbara proudly considers itself Central Coast, even though they’re only about 100 miles north of us. Geographically and topographically, however, I think they’re justified in making that claim. As a Santa Barbarian I disagree. Generally Santa Barbara is called The South Coast, because it faces south. The Central Coast is generally north of Point Conception. SB news calls it South Coast, but Santa Maria news stations refer to the Central Coast. When I was growing up in L.A., the desert winds were called Santanas, not Santa Anas. Somewhere between then and now, they became commonly known as Santa Anas. Sometimes I say “get on 101 going North” and sometimes I say “Take the 101.” They both sound right to me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/43 "2005-12-30T00:26:45Z")
> [@brightpenny](#): > > Sometimes I say “get on 101 going North” and sometimes I say “Take the 101.” They both sound right to me. 😛 Of course here in Santa Barbara, the 101 North goes West. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/44 "2005-12-30T04:52:16Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > **Spectre** : You are correct. A three-digit interstate is a ‘loop’ of the main interstate, and its last two digits are the number of the main freeway. So the 405 is a loop of the 5, and the last two digits are 05. I’ve known that fact for a long time, but I’ve never understood how that applied to the 605 (San Gabriel Valley Freeway, I think, if anyone’s still checking names). It starts on the north end at the 210, intersects once with the 5, and then heads all by its lonesome down to or near Long Beach, IIRC. Don’t most of the other Interstate loops begin and end on their main arteries? I can’t think of any other examples like the 605. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/45 "2005-12-30T05:42:24Z")
My father told me that when the four-level interchange was built in downtown LA it was also known as “The Stack” and “The Mixmaster”. These go waaay back. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/46 "2005-12-30T05:55:25Z")
The 210 never crosses the 10. I never thought of that until I read your post. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/47 "2005-12-30T05:59:18Z")
My father told me that when the four-level interchange was built in downtown LA it was also known as “The Stack” and “The Mixmaster”. These go waaay back. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/48 "2005-12-30T06:46:27Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Some Northerners claim that putting “the” in front of a Freeway number - as in “The 405”- is a So-Calism. However, although it seems more common there, it occurs up here too, albeit disliked by some. For interest’s sake, I’ve never heard any other usage with numbers in Canada: the 20, the 401, the 40, etc. I think with single digits you get more “Highway” (“Highway 2,” not “the 2”), and the Trans-Canada Highway is usually called “the Trans-Canada”, not “the 1” (except where it has some other designation, such as the 40 here in Montreal). In cities you often hear names (the Ville-Marie, the T-Can, the Décarie, the Gardiner, etc.), and then there’s the Queen Elizabeth Way in Toronto, which is officially the QEW rather than having a route number. ---
**Author:** ![DrMemory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/49 "2005-12-30T15:54:20Z")
Southern Californian Freeways… I humbly submit the “Richard Nixon Transconinental Highway”, a short lived renaming of The Number 10 Fwy. (70’s) ---
**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:** [December 30, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/50 "2005-12-30T15:55:11Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > The 210 never crosses the 10. > I never thought of that until I read your post. 🙂 Looks like the 210 becomes Route 210 in San Dimas. I suppose it _sort of_ joins the 10 via the 15, 60 or 91. To the west, it joins the 10 via the 110. But then there’s the 110 (formerly the 11). It does cross the 10, but the only way it can rejoin the 10 is via the 210 and one of the other intersecting freeways. That’s a bit of a stretch. Of course when Government is involved, ‘rules are meant to be broken’. [Freeway Honcho: ‘They’re not actually rules. They’re more like “guidelines”.’] ---
**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:** [December 30, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/51 "2005-12-30T15:57:53Z")
> [@DrMemory](#): > > Southern Californian Freeways… > I humbly submit the “Richard Nixon Transconinental Highway”, a short lived renaming of The Number 10 Fwy. (70’s) It’s now the ‘Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Freeway’. I’ve seen the sign, but have never heard anyone call it that. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/52 "2005-12-30T16:04:30Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > CNN is reporting the weather, and the weather woman mentioned the **Pineapple Express** ; so called because it is a warm storm from Hawaii. I haven’t heard that term since I left L.A. I have lived in Washingtom virtually all my life and have known of that phrase since I was a tike. It usually equates to lots of river flooding in Western Washington. It might not be used much in the Bellingham area but is used in the Seattle area when they do hit. ---
**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:** [December 30, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/53 "2005-12-30T16:09:20Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > It might not be used much in the Bellingham area but is used in the Seattle area when they do hit. I’ve only lived here two years. This is the first time I’ve heard it up here, and it was on CNN. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/54 "2005-12-30T19:12:06Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Looks like the 210 becomes Route 210 in San Dimas. I suppose it _sort of_ joins the 10 via the 15, 60 or 91. To the west, it joins the 10 via the 110. You’re right, but up until a couple of years ago, the 210 actually _did_ intersect the 10. I live in San Dimas, and if you were heading east on the 210 and went around the San Dimas curve, you used to still be on the 210 Freeway. It was only after Route 210 was extended east past San Dimas that they replaced all the signs and made that short north/south stretch before you got over Kellogg Hill part of the 57 Freeway, rather than a part of the 210. Some of you may actually remember that Raging Waters used to advertise their location by saying “Where the 210 meets the 10!” ---
**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:** [December 30, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/55 "2005-12-30T19:38:04Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > Some of you may actually remember that Raging Waters used to advertise their location by saying “Where the 210 meets the 10!” I do remember that, now that you mention it. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/56 "2005-12-30T23:49:50Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > You do know that in the sovereign state of Washington it’s illegal for stores to sell liquor? I had no idea, but my relatives in Utah recently told me it’s the same way there, for obvious reasons. Or, at least, with obvious origins. > [@scout1222](#): > > Well hells bells, that MIGHT be because they just started numbering the damn things…what a year ago? Didn’t know that. I wouldnt’ve even looked for them before; by the time I knew there was such a thing (after visiting said relatives in Utah) they were up. Anyway, just strengthens my point: the idea of exit numbers is totally foreign to us. > [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Speaking of the 405 (in L.A.; not up here), it’s the San Diego Freeway The 5 is the San DIego Freeway (too?), from Mexico to somewhere near L.A. > [@brightpenny](#): > > When I was growing up in L.A., the desert winds were called Santanas, not Santa Anas. I suspect you heard it wrong. “Santana” means parrot and “Santa Ana” refers to the Mexican general/president/whomever during the US-Mexico War, who seems like a better role model for a storm. > [@hajario](#): > > Of course here in Santa Barbara, the 101 North goes West. In San Diego, the 163 North goes straight northeast, and the 805 North goes straight northwest. In Tucson the 10 goes west-east for most of its short stay in the city. > [@Asimovian](#): > > Don’t most of the other Interstate loops begin and end on their main arteries? FWIW: Here the 805, which is an interstate loop, begins at the 5 north of San Diego, goes due southeast across the city, and ends at the 15 very close to Mexico, if it doesn’t actually go all the way to the border. The 163 (which is a state “loop”) starts from the 15 north of San Diego, cuts due southwest, and dies on 10th Street in downtown. Another naming note: in a space of probably under 5 miles, the 8 is both the Ocean Beach Freeway (after a neighborhood that’s impossible to get out of on said freeway) and the Kumeyaay Freeway (named after a local Native American tribe). ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/57 "2005-12-31T00:26:33Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > I suspect you heard it wrong. “Santana” means parrot and “Santa Ana” refers to the Mexican general/president/whomever during the US-Mexico War, who seems like a better role model for a storm. [_Santa Anna_](http://www.lsjunction.com/people/santanna.htm) was a Dictator of Mexico. Santa Ana is either [a large city in Orange County, California](http://www.santaanahistory.com/), or Spanish for [Saint Ann](http://www.themass.org/novena/life.htm). [sub]Santana plays a mean guitar…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/58 "2005-12-31T00:35:22Z")
OK, let’s get serious about the Santa Ana Winds / Santana Winds controversy. [The original spelling of the of name of the winds is unclear, not to mention the origin. Although the winds have been commonly called Santa Ana Winds or Santa Anas, many argue that the original name is Santana Winds or Santanas. Both versions of the name have been used.](http://www.laalmanac.com/weather/we23.htm) [UCLA claims that the winds are named after the Santa Ana Canyon.](http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~fovell/ASother/mm5/SantaAna/winds.html) And my favorite part of that article is the quote from Raymond Chandler: > [@](#): > > …those hot dry [winds] that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. Quite right, Raymond. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/59 "2005-12-31T00:39:32Z")
> [@DrMemory](#): > > Southern Californian Freeways… > I humbly submit the “Richard Nixon Transconinental Highway”, a short lived renaming of The Number 10 Fwy. (70’s) Not so. The 90 (Marina Fwy) from Culver City to Marina Del Rey was orginally named “The Richard M. Nixon Freeway,” but renamed “Marina Freeway” after Nixon’s resignation. [Cite](http://www.laalmanac.com/transport/tr27f.htm). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/60 "2005-12-31T01:34:10Z")
> [@Rico](#): > > The 90 (Marina Fwy) from Culver City to Marina Del Rey was orginally named “The Richard M. Nixon Freeway,” but renamed “Marina Freeway” after Nixon’s resignation. [Cite](http://www.laalmanac.com/transport/tr27f.htm). Damn. I was just going to say that. That’s got to be the world’s shortest freeway. I grew up on the Westside and everyone I knew learned freeway driving on the 90. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573.md?page=4)