What's the weird thing about your city/state/region that only the locals get?

[Isgrimnur]

What weird idiosyncrasies make visitors and transplants to your locale scratch their head?

Moving to Texas near the start of high school, it was definitely the Homecoming (chrysanthe)mums.

[Jaymann]

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

[Moliere]

Haboobs

[Skinypupy]

I live in Utah, so...everything?

More specifically
- Insane liquor laws
- Fry sauce
- Street names. It's actually really helpful to get around once you understand it, but it does make for some really weird addresses. 1906 East 7235 South, for example. Upon visiting for the first time, my friend asked, "What the hell...do you live in Battleship?"
- Mormons, generally. Lots of quirky behaviors, language/terminology, assumptions (most Utah Mormons just assume everyone else is "of the faith"), etc.
-

[Jaymann]

- Mormons, generally. Lots of quirky behaviors, language/terminology, assumptions (most Utah Mormons just assume everyone else is "of the faith"), etc.

That reminds me of the time I was in Utah for a business meeting, and we went out for drinks afterwards. Somebody asked me if I was LDS, and I responded, "No, I'm LSD."

[malchior]

Jughandles and not pumping your own gas. Also pork roll. It is amazing. That it isn't widely available elsewhere is a national crime.

[YellowKing]

I'd have to go with the annual Azalea Festival which has been held in town every year since 1948. It takes place for a week every spring and consists of literally dozens of public and private events around town. Highlights include a parade, celebrities, concerts, garden tours, etc. It brings around 300,000 visitors, so it is considered a VERY BIG DEAL. However, I'm not sure anyone outside of NC would really understand all the hubbub over a flower.

Having grown up with it, I've gone from it being a highlight of my childhood, to casual indifference, to just wanting tourists to go the fuck away.

My major criticism is that it smacks of snobbery, hobnobbery, and highway robbery. The latter being the insane ticket prices for the concerts which are sold out instantly after accounting for all the committee members and their wealthy friends. The former being the fact that it's planned and run by the Wilmington upper crust elite, so you have a lot of tea parties and formal garden shit where rich people prance around and do whatever rich people do. Sometimes it feels like one giant circle jerk designed to get people to tell us how wonderful our town is. Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time the local news angled for a compliment from some B-list celebrity in town, I would actually be able to afford the concert prices.

But I'm not bitter.

[tgb]

The Sonoran hot dog.


(Yes, there is really a hot dog under there somewhere).

[Grifman]

The eternal war between Eastern style and Western style BBQ in NC:

https://www.ourstate.com/nc-barbecue-styles/

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/great- ... c-barbecue


Eastern BBQ


Western BBQ

To the horror of purists on either side, I love both of them, though I grew up with Eastern style.

[Kraken]

Probably driving. Locals know that walking is the preferred way to get around; Boston's a compact city and most trips are within walking distance. Most outlying towns grew up around a village square and are similarly walkable. When you can't walk, take the T or ride a bike or call a Uber. If you must drive, parking is scarce and expensive, and the roads are always choked. Due to the inadequate road network we consider traffic laws to be chiefly advisory -- a way of assessing blame after a collision. As long as nobody gets hurt, anything goes.

Visitors who are oblivious to all this and try to drive around Boston invariably leave traumatized.

[DOS=HIGH]

Jughandles and not pumping your own gas. Also pork roll. It is amazing. That it isn't widely available elsewhere is a national crime.

I use to love Pork Roll and I have seen in it other parts of the country, it's just hard to notice unless you're looking for it. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't eat it now because I would look at the nutritional label. People don't really understand what a real Philly Soft Pretzel is either and don't know what they're missing.

[Jeff V]

Shot.

[Zarathud]

The Lake is to the East.
You can walk across a decent part of the downtown Loop via underground tunnels.
Deep dish or go home.
Each neighborhood is has a very different flavor, but it still comes down to -- North Side or South Side?

[LawBeefaroni]

The Lake is to the East.
You can walk across a decent part of the downtown Loop via underground tunnels.
Deep dish or go home.
Each neighborhood is has a very different flavor, but it still comes down to -- North Side or South Side?

And dibs.

[ImLawBoy]

Deep dish or go home.

While I love good deep dish (i.e., Lou Malnati's, not Giordano's), I think most outsiders get that about Chicago - that's the whole touristy bit after all. What they probably don't get is that everyday pizza in Chicago is not deep dish. It's thin crust (thinner than New York, but not cracker thin) and cut into squares (party cut). It's also topped with Italian sausage (I read somewhere once that Chicago is the only major metro area where sausage is ordered more than pepperoni, and I like that, so I refuse to do any research that might otherwise invalidate my bias (and if Isgrimnur comes up with anything to the contrary, it's clearly FAKENEWS)).

[dbt1949]

The number of right wing militias in the state.

[Sectoid]

Jughandles and not pumping your own gas. Also pork roll. It is amazing. That it isn't widely available elsewhere is a national crime.

It is Taylor ham, you savage!

[ImLawBoy]

The number of right wing militias in the state.

This could also be said for Michigan.

[Skinypupy]

The Sonoran hot dog.


(Yes, there is really a hot dog under there somewhere).

I hope they get a new one, as someone apparently vomited on that one.

[Punisher]

Jughandles and not pumping your own gas. Also pork roll. It is amazing. That it isn't widely available elsewhere is a national crime.

Agreed...
The first time I got gas out of state I sat in the car for several minutes wondering where the lazy gas station attendant was... It never dawned on me to pump my own gas since it is illegal in NJ.

[Isgrimnur]

It consists of a hot dog that is wrapped in bacon and grilled, served on a bolillo-style hot dog bun, and topped with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, and a variety of additional condiments, often including mayonnaise, mustard, and jalapeño salsa.

'>hurk<

[malchior]

Jughandles and not pumping your own gas. Also pork roll. It is amazing. That it isn't widely available elsewhere is a national crime.

It is Taylor ham, you savage!

Haha. I use them interchangeably personally. I grew up in the Taylor Ham region of NJ but have resided in the Pork Roll region for over a decade now. Though I tend to use Taylor Ham when I am eating the branded variety.

[LawBeefaroni]

The eternal war between Eastern style and Western style BBQ in NC:

https://www.ourstate.com/nc-barbecue-styles/

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/great- ... c-barbecue


Eastern BBQ


Western BBQ

To the horror of purists on either side, I love both of them, though I grew up with Eastern style.

So Eastern style is with the pork forward and Western is with the potatoes forward. Got it.

[gameoverman]

Two things I've heard a lot over the years, from family and friends:
1. Everything is so far away, although we have a lot of things here(Southern California). The beach, desert, skiing, fishing, lakes, mountains, amusement parks, whatever you want...but you have to get on a freeway and drive for awhile to get there. Nothing is in walking range and there is no public transportation to speak of.
2. Earthquakes, how often do they happen and how many have you been in? It's not a big deal to me so I couldn't even guess at how many I've ''lived through'. When I was a kid, sure, that was an exciting thing. Now? "Meh".

[pr0ner]

I'd have to go with the annual Azalea Festival which has been held in town every year since 1948. It takes place for a week every spring and consists of literally dozens of public and private events around town. Highlights include a parade, celebrities, concerts, garden tours, etc. It brings around 300,000 visitors, so it is considered a VERY BIG DEAL. However, I'm not sure anyone outside of NC would really understand all the hubbub over a flower.

Having grown up with it, I've gone from it being a highlight of my childhood, to casual indifference, to just wanting tourists to go the fuck away.

The city where I grew up (Norfolk, VA) has an Azalea Festival too.

[pr0ner]

Speaking of Norfolk, VA, the weird thing about it is that only locals know the correct way to pronounce the name.

If it doesn't sound like you're swearing when you say it, you're doing it wrong.

[$iljanus]

After living in MA for a little while I've come to the conclusion that the vowels in the middle of most of the town names are just placeholders and are not meant to be pronounced.

[hentzau]

Hepcat.

[Max Peck]

After living in MA for a little while I've come to the conclusion that the vowels in the middle of most of the town names are just placeholders and are not meant to be pronounced.

Just a few days ago I learned that is called schwa elision/deletion. Apparently it happens because people are lazy.

Ease is essentially what this boils down to: physical laziness, as exhibited in the linguistics phenomenon called vowel reduction. Because it takes more muscle work to clearly enunciate every syllable in a word, English speakers tend to downgrade the vowels in the unstressed syllables (the less-important ones, intelligibilitywise) to a single all-purpose sound: the schwa, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by an upside-down-e symbol and pronounced (approximately) “uh.” Think about the first a in amazing, the second e in basement, the u in lettuce. Three different vowels, but because the accent doesn’t fall on the syllable they’re in, they come out of our mouths the same: schwa.

Thence a second phonetic tendency, schwa deletion: having reduced your previously distinctive vowel to a generic unstressed vowel, you start skipping that syllable altogether. You see this with words like family, probably, or corporate, which many folks pronounce, contra their spelling, with only two syllables. English speakers everywhere share a fondness for eliding their schwas, but the Brits seem particular fans: e.g., the contracted penultimate syllable in a word like secretary.

[YellowKing]

As an NCer, I have to weigh in on the barbecue debate:

Barbecue is like beer - I have my preferences, but I'm not going to turn any of it down.

My tastes have changed over the years. Growing up on the east coast, Eastern-style was all I knew so that's where I felt most comfortable. However, I've never been a big fan of vinegar so I'd drown it in non-vinegar based sauces or hot sauce.

When I was introduced to Lexington or Piedmont-style barbecue, it became my preference simply because it tempers the vinegar base with ketchup and/or other spices/mixes. That's blasphemy to some, but for me it was essentially what I was doing all along anyway.

I know I may be seen as a traitor to some east coasters, but I have to go with my experience and my personal choice. I've had many more "bad" Eastern-style barbecues than I have Piedmont style, because that sauce can cover a lot of flaws. On paper I know Piedmont-style is the equivalent of drowning a fine steak in Heinz 57 sauce, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

[killbot737]

Lafayette vs. American!

[Jag]

South Florida:

Face eating zombies.

[coopasonic]

The Garbage Plate

[Holman]

And dibs.

This happens in Philadelphia too, although less often because of lesser snowfall. It's technically illegal, but (although there have been robocall reminders about it) I've never heard of a fine. Since people might be claiming spots in front of someone else's address, how would the Parking Authority write a ticket?

I would assume it happens in every city with heavy snow and street parking. I'm told it somehow doesn't occur in New York.

One thing that happens only in South Philly, or so I'm told: median parking.

[AWS260]

No right turn on red.

[Blackhawk]

I'm honestly not sure. We have a lot of local things here that stand out, but I don't know which of them are unique to southwest Indiana, and which are just a midwest thing.

River folk?

Hunter's Mountain? (Four biscuits, then a layer of hash browns, then a layer of scrambled eggs, then a layer of white sausage gravy, all in one big stack that covers a huge plate three inches deep.)

Golf carts as a means of regular transport, seen on public roads, at the grocery store, and picking kids up from school?

I'm sure there are some bits of local dialect (much of it fading) that may be unique, like 'oleo' for margarine or 'happenings' for an event.

[Z-Corn]

Lafayette vs. American!

Lafayette only!

I've never stepped foot in the American and I never will.

[Z-Corn]

Around here it's being taught as a child, "If you ain't Dutch you ain't much."

Many children are forced to falsely claim Dutch heritage due to peer pressure.


Wet burritos were invented here. And it was at Little Mexico NOT The Beltline Bar!

The Fiery Furnaces say we grow the best blueberries in the US of A. I agree...

[malchior]

The Garbage Plate

Oh man the nights at Nick Tahou's in undergrad. The weird think I remember 20+ years later would be people yelling orders at those guys that might as well be random and they got every one right. Before automation.

[Kraken]

Around here it's being taught as a child, "If you ain't Dutch you ain't much."

Many children are forced to falsely claim Dutch heritage due to peer pressure.


Wet burritos were invented here. And it was at Little Mexico NOT The Beltline Bar!

The Fiery Furnaces say we grow the best blueberries in the US of A. I agree...

The Beltline is a mandatory destination whenever I go to GR. Wet burritos are to die for.