# What were they thinking? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 14, 2004, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267 "2004-06-14T11:48:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/1 "2004-06-14T11:48:44Z")
On my way to Newark Airport yesterday to pick up my parents, I took a wrong turn and wound up sort of wandering around a bit before turning around and righting myself. Along the way I noticed a street sign. It said “Coit Street”. Again, I ask, what were they thinking? ---
**Author:** ![haardvark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@haardvark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haardvark)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/2 "2004-06-14T13:19:25Z")
> [@DAVEW0071](#): > > On my way to Newark Airport yesterday to pick up my parents, I took a wrong turn and wound up sort of wandering around a bit before turning around and righting myself. > > Along the way I noticed a street sign. It said “Coit Street”. > > Again, I ask, what were they thinking? I went to HS with a guy who’s last name was Coit. I am sorry to say, his life was rather miserable as a consequence… ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/3 "2004-06-14T14:01:41Z")
😕 What am I missing here? _Coitus_ Street, now that would be funny… but Coit? ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/4 "2004-06-14T16:16:59Z")
I have a friend who used to live on our local Coit Street. His house was indeed known as the Coitus house. ---
**Author:** ![DAVEW0071](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e19b73/32.png) [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/5 "2004-06-14T20:22:03Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > 😕 > > What am I missing here? _Coitus_ Street, now that would be funny… but Coit? I’m not up on my verb forms and tenses, but “to coit” would be a way of saying “to engage in coitus.” ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/6 "2004-06-14T20:47:09Z")
[Coit Tower](http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFNbrhds/Coit_Tower.html) ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/7 "2004-06-14T21:24:58Z")
There’s also the ever popular intersection in NYC: Seaman and Cummings. No, I am not making this up. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/8 "2004-06-14T22:00:45Z")
> [@Rasa](#): > > There’s also the ever popular intersection in NYC: Seaman and Cummings. > > No, I am not making this up. I have an old book by National Lampoon that shows a picture of the intersection of “Woodcock Rd” and “Kitchen-dick Ln”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/9 "2004-06-14T22:38:18Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > [Coit Tower](http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFNbrhds/Coit_Tower.html) The great thing about Coit Tower is that from a distance it looks like a penis. You have to wonder if that was intentional. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/10 "2004-06-14T22:58:22Z")
In Oxford, there is a _Crotch Crescent_. Alas _Grope Lane_ has been [renamed](http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/archives/DI240101.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![alimarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@alimarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alimarx)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/11 "2004-06-14T23:10:37Z")
You could always hire [someone](http://www.coit.com/) to do it for you. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/12 "2004-06-14T23:23:21Z")
> [@Rasa](#): > > There’s also the ever popular intersection in NYC: Seaman and Cummings. > > No, I am not making this up. Yes. And there is a street that intersects it, called Dyckman. We went for the Deli this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/13 "2004-06-14T23:50:17Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The great thing about Coit Tower is that from a distance it looks like a penis. You have to wonder if that was intentional. It’s supposed to look like the nozzle to a fireman’s hose, and was meant as a memorial to the firefighters of San Francisco, particularly the ones who put out the blaze that consumed half the city after the 1906 earthquake. The money for it came from the estate of Lillian Hitchcock Coit, the “patron saint” of San Francisco firefighters. Long before the idea of the tower had even been conceived, there were rumors that Mrs. Coit was not so much enamored of the firefighter’s public service as she was of their \ private services. The final design of the tower, obviously, did little to squelch those rumors, although Mrs. Coit had been dead for a couple of decades at that point. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/14 "2004-06-14T23:54:54Z")
Curious about the coit/coitus idea above, I looked up coit and got: “\Coit, v. t. To throw, as a stone. [Obs.] See Quoit.” Following the link to Quoit, it says “quoits (used with a sing. verb) A game in which flat rings of iron or rope are pitched at a stake, with points awarded for encircling it.” I looked up coitus and I don’t think that the conjugation “to coit” would be correct. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-they-thinking/250267/15 "2004-06-15T00:10:11Z")
After I posted that I didn’t get it, I looked up “coit” and found it’s Australian slang for buttocks, so I guessed that was what you meant. I don’t buy the coitus/coition thing.