Bulldrek v3.0

A big tank of sulfuric acidy-goodies went up in PA tonight. Don't know if Hauze or Liniah are around there anywhere, but if they are I hope they got out of the way okay.

This happened in Petrolia, PA!? Are you kidding me?

It's out in the Pitts. Who the fuck cares? Near Philly is where I'm located at. Oh, and Lin too. And Veed. And Nex. But really, the topic is all about me. Fuck them.

Ah. Well good, then! Of course the news media was initially making it sound a lot worse than it turned out to be.

Jeff Hauze wrote:It's out in the Pitts. Who the fuck cares? Near Philly is where I'm located at. Oh, and Lin too. And Veed. And Nex. But really, the topic is all about me. Fuck them.

Hey... fuck you.

Somehow, I'm not surprised that this was the one thread that would get you to post in who knows how long.

DV8 wrote:This happened in Petrolia, PA!? Are you kidding me?

It was a spill of Oleum, which is unrelated to gasoline. [Or "petrol."] On the other hand, if what is amusing is simply the names of Pennsylvania towns - many named during America's industrial boom, and thus possessing derivative names - then Petrolia is hardly scratching the surface of a state whose towns include Ashville [just down the road from burning Centralia], Broad Top City, Carbondale, Coal Center [and two Coaldales, as well as Coalmont, Coalport, and Cokeburg], Mechanicsburg and Mechanicsville, Mount Carbon, Oil City, Rockhill Furnace, and Tunnelhill. A drive through coal country will lead to the discovery of dozens more.

Unintentionally amusing are such cities as Shamokin - you have to say it out loud to get it, unless you're Teja, who nearly died with laughter upon seeing the sign on our way to burning Centralia - Beaver [and Beaver Meadows and Beavertown and Beaver Falls and Big Beaver], and my personal favorite, Schuylkill Haven, where presumably you go to prevent being killed by the Schuyl.

Ha ha! Pennsylvania names their cities funny.

Don't forget the lovely ethnic names we steal as well. You've got Tamaqua, Schickshinney, Moqannaqua, and Wapwalapan for the American Indian side, the very originially named King of Prussia, the lovely Welsh names Bryn Mawr and assorted others.

Oh, let's also not forget the Schuykill (which no one pronounces right, and the Module actually asked "what the fuck is that?") or the funny religions names we have like the towns of Blue Ball, Intercourse, and Paradise all within easy driving distance of each other. My state clearly rocks.

I was going to whip out some of my favorite native names, like Connoquenessing, North Catasauqua, Punxsutawney and Susquehanna Depot, but I resisted the temptation. Similarly, I didn't mention some of the towns which themselves are quite odd, nevermind their names: we all know about Centralia, but what about S.N.P.J.? What would, anywhere else, simply be a rec club for old men is transformed, by Pennsylvania law, into the Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota, a real, genuine borough...with a population, at the last census, of zero.

Don't get me started on Wilkes-Barre, which is, for reasons which have never been made clear to me, pronounced "Wilksberry."

Pennsylvania's penchant for bizarre names extends into their system of naming boroughs and cities, as well: until recently, there was only one "town" in Pennsylvania, and that was Bloomsburg. Technically, it's still the only town, but in a bizarre feud, McCandless signed their home rule charter as Town of McCandless, even though it's not a town in any legal sense in Pennsylvania.

Home rule? Why, of course, which leads to such brilliant names as The Home Rule Municipality of Whitemarsh Township, which sounds like a Marxist commune translated awkwardly from the original Russian, but isn't.

Clearly, Pennsylvania is superior to all other states, simply by virtue of awesomeness in nomenclature.

For a more ironic flavor, how about the city that used to be between burning Centralia and nearby Ashville? Care to guess the name? No? Dick. It's "Byrnesville." And yes, it did: in 1996, they tore out the last of the houses, leaving behind nothing more than a Christian shrine [which Linz took a picture of, but which I seem to not have, for reasons unknown to me].

Oh, gods, I burn to go back to Centralia. My desire is like a living thing within me, all teeth and talons, rending me from the inside, voice raised in a fiery shriek: the phoenix, rising.

3278 wrote:Don't get me started on Wilkes-Barre, which is, for reasons which have never been made clear to me, pronounced "Wilksberry."

Because the people of Wilkes-Barre are genetically bred rejects who practice incest as a regional religion? Seriously, you're safer moving to Innsmouth than this hell on Earth.

As for industry names, don't forget Oreland.


And one that's just fun (in an awkward sort of way) to say is Swarthmore.

Jeff Hauze wrote:

3278 wrote:Don't get me started on Wilkes-Barre, which is, for reasons which have never been made clear to me, pronounced "Wilksberry."

Because the people of Wilkes-Barre are genetically bred rejects who practice incest as a regional religion? Seriously, you're safer moving to Innsmouth than this hell on Earth.

You mean the place where I send my student loan check every month?

Yes. They're really using that money to fund their worship of Dagon, in case you were wondering.

I like odd names...infinitely more comforting that incorrectly pronounced ones like ver-sales(Versailles) and dee-kin-dairy(Dequindre) that make me want to stab things, a lot.

Kai wrote:I like odd names...infinitely more comforting that incorrectly pronounced ones like ver-sales(Versailles) and dee-kin-dairy(Dequindre) that make me want to stab things, a lot.

Hey it goes both ways....do you think the French are able to correctly pronounce Washington DC for example?? Yay for Franglais

Kai wrote:I like odd names...infinitely more comforting that incorrectly pronounced ones like ver-sales(Versailles) and dee-kin-dairy(Dequindre) that make me want to stab things, a lot.

Clearly, you've never heard anyone try to pronounce Manayunk, Conshohocken, or Schuykill. In non-Pennsylvanian those would be man-aye-uck, con-show-hoboken or con-show-hyuken, and finally what-the-fuck-is-that? Though a native Phildelphian will go for Shore-kill in place of what-the-fuck-is-that.

What? Hoboken is in New Jersey.

Kon-sha-hawk-in

Man-ee-unk

Skoo-kll

I am of the opinion that not only should original pronunciations be the default, but that we shouldn't alter the names of other places to fit our language standard. "Germany" isn't really the name of anything, and there's no reason we [and everyone else] can't just call it "Deutschland." Similarly, "Nippon" [or Nihon] for "Japan," and "Nederland" for "The Netherlands." [Although I do like the British form of "The Low Countries." Likewise, it's not "Etats-Unis," but rather "United States."

I agree! Though, I know from experience that there are preciously few people who are going to agree.

I agree.