A bit of trivia about today's wird

Thule (ancient area), name generally given by the ancients to the most northerly part of Europe known to them. Pytheas of Massalía (present-day Marseille), a Greek navigator of the 4th century BC, was the first to mention the island of Thule, stating that it was a six-day voyage north of Britain and that the midsummer sun never set there. It is not known, however, whether Pytheas ever reached Thule. In antiquity Thule was considered Mainland, the largest of the Shetland Islands, but modern scholars believe that Pytheas may have been referring to either Iceland or northern Norway. The Romans used the phrase Ultima Thule to denote the most distant unknown land.
Thule for 1

1 among the ancients, the northernmost region of the world, possibly taken to be Norway, Iceland, Jutland, etc.: also ultima Thule
2 Eskimo settlement on the NW coast of Greenland: pop. c. 1,000: site of U.S. air base

Notice that the name of the Air Force Base in N.W. Greenland is "tooley"
I learned the word in German, from Goethe's poem about the Icelandic king whose wife gave him a golden goblet. "die Augen täten ihm über, so oft er trank daraus" so I always pronounced it with a "t" and never before heard of its being pronounced with "th" as in "three".

Orange juice without breakfast is like sunshine without a day.

I'd say your post was a little wird but I'd be afraid that you'd get þore.*

*With apologies to the Mac þless.

Dear Faldage: I'd say you should drink your orange juice in your birthday suit on the highest point in Greenland, but you might get Þore.

Just checked my birthday suit, Dr. Bill. They ain' no orange juice in it.

This finally explains why my great-aunt Talitha always used the word "toolies" when she was talking about the boondocks, hinterlands, middle of nowhere, BFE, etc...

Fiberbabe's great-aunt Talitha always used the word "toolies" when she was talking about the boondocks.

Did she call cows by saying, "Boss, boss, bossie!" (Latin, bos, bovis) or pigs by saying, "Sooey, sooey!" (Latin sus, suis)?

Maybe ancient aunt Talitha was old enough to call cows "cy" or even "kine".

"Toolies" is alive and well in mid-Michigan, as are boonies, boondocks, etc. I wonder, do more urban areas have multiple words to describe cityscapes which aren't as commonly used here in the toolies?

re: do more urban areas have multiple words to describe cityscapes which aren't as commonly used here in the toolies?

well, there is the all purpose--"out of towner"-- good for anyone from NJ to ND.. and within the city?

Uptown (as in Uptown Girl-- the song) and downtown, and in NY-- the derogitory "bridge and tunnel crowd" - and "from the boroughs" -- but we also distiguish between west siders-- (tend to be liberal, outspoken, and well read) and east siders (money'd, conservative, and superficial), urban homesteaders-- (good) and gentrifiers (bad).. many neighborhoods have "characteristics", and just saying you're from chelsea-- or the villiage, or alphabet city, or SoHo, or DUMBO, or TriBeca-- can says it all.

Boston has it neighborhoods, as does Philly, and Baltimore..

We've probably discussed this before, but what exactly is the difference between uptown and downtown, if any?

>what exactly is the difference between uptown and downtown, if any?

My answer would be that uptown is usually topographically more northern or higher above sea level - which is often the richer area of town over-looking downtown. Downtown on the other hand is, apart from often being the centre of town and thus located in the bottom of the valley (if there is one), is often the central business district.
In general it seems people use these in just as abstract a way as 'I'm going up to Amsterdam' ,or 'I'm popping down to Lake Garda'. I had a theory for a while that men used the 'up to' and 'down to' exclusively according to geographic relation, but alas, men seem to use them pretty carelessly too. The inconsistency really is quite silly; I've been on the phone before with a friend who said 'I'll come up to Munich', and I replied 'No, I'll come up to Cologne!'. Of course, according to height above sea level, he was right, but according to topography, I was

Yes, belligerentyouth, was right, Up town is where the money is..
As to whether it is always UP-- it's hard to tell NY's uptown, is just North --actually its mid manhattan island.
the upper east side of manhattan has so much wealth-- it made a real "blip" on the census map-- a 1 mile, by 1/2 mile strip, Fifth Ave to Lexington from 60th to 80th street, mostly apartment buildings, so fairly high density, had average family income over $1.5 million. Down town, still included the "lower east side" -- an area of low income,-- the same area featured in the 1930's movies, "the Bowery boys". Alphabet city -- an area in manhatten that has Avenues with letter names, Ave A, Ave B, etc., was the site of the first planned public housing in US--Jacob Riis's plan.

though, now parts of NY's Downtown have become trendy, and more expensive, (TriBeca, or Dumbo) they are still reletively cheap compared to the upper east side.

DUMBO=Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, TriBeca=Triangle Below Canal, SoHo=South of Houston.

I have always been amused by the Aussie word "outback" which we know the meaning of, but in Pennsylvania it means the little house of ease at the back of the garden.

My native city, Harrisburg PA, was (and as far as I know, still is) like Gaul, divided into three parts: Downtown, Uptown, and The Hill. The Hill is a geographically separate section at the top of a broad high hill which rises up from Cameron (11th) Street at the eastern end of the city. Downtown is the area from the river to Cameron St. going W to E and from the south end of the town about 15 or 20 blocks or so north and comprising the central business district and the state capitol complex. North of Downtown is Uptown, much of which was the high-class residential area. (No longer -- there are no high class areas in Harrisburg any more.) So, like NY and most other cities, Downtown usually connotes the most crowded, busiest and lively areas of a city and Uptown generally connotes a wealthy or higher class area.