# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/61 "2005-12-31T01:57:30Z")
> [@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. > > Which reminded me of our friend **Coastal Eddie**. And **June Gloom**. I’ve heard that **SigAlert** may not be well-known outside of California. And in L.A. freeways are **the [number]** instead of ‘I5’ or ‘Highway 14’ or whatever. Not too long ago I discovered that **chili size** is a SoCal term. More regionally, in the Antelope Valley L.A. is called **Down Below**. > > Any other Southern California-isms? How about “The Grapevine” ? And…I say this with embarrassment as a lifelong native of L.A. county: I still don’t know what a chili size actually is. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/62 "2005-12-31T02:02:31Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I still don’t know what a chili size actually is. The [chili size](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=349716&highlight=chili+size) debate. As for the Grapevine…anybody who listened to Commando Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen knows about the Grapevine. 😃 How about _Dead Man’s Curve_? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/63 "2005-12-31T02:48:19Z")
Thanks. I Googled Dead Man’s Curve a few minutes ago. I’d heard of it before, and not just within the context of the Jan and Dean song. Now, let’s see how many others know where it is. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/64 "2005-12-31T04:23:00Z")
> [@Troy McClure SF](#): > > Being from not So Cal, feel free to correct me, but it seems to me that if you’re anywhere within Santa Barbara/Victorville/Palm Springs/San Juan Capistrano, you’re “from LA.” No one pulls that up here. > > “I’m from San Francisco.” > > “Oh, neat, what part?” > > “Mill Valley/Redwood City/Hayward.” > > :blank stare: Victorville = High Desert Palm Springs = Low Desert The San Gaberiels and San Bernardino Mountains is a distinctive dividing line between LA (and its adjoining metro areas) from the desert. For us here in the High Desert, anything below (south of) the Cajon Pass is called The Dead Zone. Other SoCal notables: [The Rim (of the World Drive)](http://www.byways.org/browse/byways/2595/) [The Strand](http://www.strandvenice.com/) San Berdoo (San Bernardino) Fontucky (Fontana) ---
**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 31, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/65 "2005-12-31T06:08:22Z")
Here’s another one… As **Jakeline** and I were discussing this thread, she pointed out something I hadn’t thought of. I don’t know if this applies to other areas of the country, but we certainly have a tendency out here to refer to people geographically by their area code. For instance, most of my coworkers who live on the west side like to tease me about living “in the 909.” We associate 310 with the west side, 818 with the Valley, 714 with the OC, etc. As it is, I have a hard enough time educating the uninformed that the fact that I’m in the 909 does NOT mean I live in Riverside. _\_ ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/66 "2005-12-31T06:13:17Z")
Yeah I know all about dead man’s curve, both in RL and in song. What about the “strip” and why was it called the strip? Or Schwabs Drugstore? I’ll bet **Johnny** has stopped at the Rock Store a time or two. From the house I grew up in on a clear day we could see Mt. “Baldy” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/67 "2005-12-31T06:14:13Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > As it is, I have a hard enough time educating the uninformed that the fact that I’m in the 909 does NOT mean I live in Riverside. _\_ Because San Dimas is _so much_ better. 😃 Silenus, who has no place to talk, because he lives in the Fly Capital of California. ---
**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 31, 2005, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/68 "2005-12-31T08:52:08Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > I’ll bet **Johnny** has stopped at the Rock Store a time or two. You’d win that bet. 😉😃 Yeah, I rememeber teasing our supervisor about living in the 909. (I was 310, myself.) ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/69 "2005-12-31T09:22:07Z")
I remember back when SoCal only had two area codes…the 213 (LA county) and the 714 [(which is now split into 714, 949, 951, 909, 760, 858 and 619)](http://www.whitepages.com/maps/CA) ---
**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 31, 2005, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/70 "2005-12-31T09:24:17Z")
When I first moved to L.A. my area code was 213. Later it changed to 310. When I was a kid in San Diego our area code was 714. ---
**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 31, 2005, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/71 "2005-12-31T12:47:26Z")
I’m aware that there are two 'N’s, but considering how badly we pronounce California and Los Angeles, etc. I figure it’s close enough. > [@vivalostwages](#): > > I still don’t know what a chili size actually is. Never lived in LA, but yeah, I have no idea what that is. As for San Diego County regionalisms, I humbly submit Klantee (Santee), one of the KKK’s East County strongholds along with Lakeside. Not as bad as Lakeside IMO, but still the kind of place where you attend an anonymous GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) meeting at your high school and wake up the next morning with a dead cat and a burning cross on your lawn–I know people who’ve done just that over there. The area code point is a good one. Most in/from South San Diego are incredibly proud of living in the 619; a notable example is Reggie Bush, USC running back, who wears “619” in facepaint under his eyes for every game. > [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > When I was a kid in San Diego our area code was 714. When I first came to San Diego at the tender age of 11 our area code was 619. Then it became 858, and then we moved just below the 619 dividing line. I believe 858 extends southwards to the 8, north and east to the city limits, and west to the coast (also, FWIW, the city limits. Actually those may technically end somewhere in the ocean because of some Navy port technicality or something, but driving out there is a mess, let me tell you.) 619 extends to the south and east, and 760 to the north, way north—as far up as Victorville AFAIK (I was there last week and noticed it was 760), and probably farther. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/72 "2005-12-31T14:17:51Z")
How come folks say **Loss** Angeles, but **Lohs** everyplace else (Gatos, Feliz, etc.)? Or maybe not. I’ve only been to SoCal 3 times (and loved it). Then again, I have a Benny Goodman radio broadcast from 1936 where the station IDs as “KHJ, Los Ahn-heluhz.” ---
**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 31, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/73 "2005-12-31T14:30:36Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > How come folks say **Loss** Angeles, but **Lohs** everyplace else (Gatos, Feliz, etc.)? Or maybe not. I’ve only been to SoCal 3 times (and loved it). > > Then again, I have a Benny Goodman radio broadcast from 1936 where the station IDs as “KHJ, Los Ahn-heluhz.” The correct pronunciation in Spanish is more like “Loce”–long ‘o’ with an ‘s’ sound, not the ‘z’ sound we often use for the letter S. Spanish has no ‘z’ sound. Also, the ‘g’ is silent, the ‘a’ is prounounced ah, and the 'e’s are pronounced ‘ay’. The correct pronunciation of “Los Angeles” is something like “Loce on-hay-lace”. The answer to your question, though, is probably “we’ve always done it that way”. If I’d have to guess at why, I’d say that the pronounciation of “Angeles” is pretty far off from what most Americans would be comfortable pronouncing, so we give up on pronouncing the thing entirely and come up with an Anglicized version. Los Gatos is easier (“loce gah-toce”) and so we make at least a halfhearted effort. I don’t know about elsewhere, but here people always say L.A. and never Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/74 "2005-12-31T15:02:20Z")
Ah the 909 home of the dirt people. (running joke on Kevin and Bean on KROQ) IIRC correctly there was at one time only 4 or maybe 5 area codes for the entire state 213 LA 714 OC and South 415 SF Bay area 805 Damn near every thing else ??? ---
**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, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/75 "2005-12-31T15:21:15Z")
[Here](http://www.lincmad.com/map1947.html) is a cool map of the original area codes in the US from 1947. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/76 "2005-12-31T20:03:35Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > No, most of the places you mention are definitely not L.A, and people who live there would not say they’re from L.A. I went to a concert at the Bren Center at UC Irvine. The British band, not tuned in to the local attitudes, said, “Hello, Los Angeles!”. Polite applause. Oh, I’ve been in Ventura/Los Angeles/Orange counties for 25 years. What’s “chili size”? I thought of another one. I was watching some celebrity fetish show once for lack of something else on the hotel tv, and the actor said, mockingly, “I AM the king!” I thought, how many people outside the L.A. radio and tv markets get that? (There are a lot of ads for “Paul, the king of big screen”, always ending with Paul saying the phrase.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/77 "2005-12-31T20:11:14Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > Oh, I’ve been in Ventura/Los Angeles/Orange counties for 25 years. What’s “chili size”? See #62. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/78 "2005-12-31T20:21:35Z")
Thought of another one. I know that Thomas Brothers published maps for more than just SoCal, but if you get your back-east relatives coming out, you get blank stares when you mention “and there’s a Thomas Guide under the front seat in case you get lost”. I consider a Thomas Guide essential equipment in the broader L.A. area. ---
**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 31, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/79 "2005-12-31T20:24:37Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > I consider a Thomas Guide essential equipment in the broader L.A. area. Definitely. I still have my L.A. and Orange County Thomas Guide from 2000. I have one for the PNW, but it covers Oregon and Washington in the same size book as the L.A. and Orange County edition. Outside of the metro areas (is ‘metro area’ a SoCal term?) many streets are not shown (like the one I live on). ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573/80 "2005-12-31T21:33:56Z")
I’ve heard of “The Valley” (San Fernando) and “The Other Valley” (San Gabriel). ``` And in relation to San Berdoo: ``` Slime-mar; Van Noo-ies; Granola Hills; Bree. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/southern-california-isms/337573.md?page=5)