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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Some areas of New York City have colorful names, or names with surprising etymologies. Spuytyn Duyvil, at the turbulent confluence of the Harlem and Hudson Rivers, takes its name from the Dutch, "spitting devil," and puts us near not only the Netherlands, but also near the netherworld. The latter is seconded by the less beautifully dubbed, but still more dangerous Hell Gate, which leads From the East River to The Long Island Sound--and from there to Jerusalem, in whose Hinim Valley the Talmud puts the gates of Hell. In the same vein, chique Soho was called "Hells Hundred Acres" by the denizens of its factory lofts (and one of its hook and ladders is still called that). Pearl Street, The Bowery, Wall Street are less imaginative. Spring Street, on the other hand, comes from a fiction of another sort. There never was a spring there at all, but a dry hole and a boondoggle, a scam water project. The pit was used to a hide a murder victim's body, though. Of the "surprising," I know just one. The Rockaways aren't some distant sea-plunked boulder, "Rockaway" was the name of the Native American tribe who lived there, among other places around town.
What about where you live?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Just to the south of us, in Massachusetts, there's a town called "Pride's Crossing" don't know the original meaning but we think it's apt today in another meaning since a lot of very, very rich folk live there.Twinkling  . wow
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Pride's Crossing
too bad it's in Massachusetts, instead of near Niagara... would make for a great Shaggy Roadsign.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Inselpeter-- you left out one of my favorites--
All you Homer Simpson fans know it-- Flushing Meadows!
It was the sight of both of NY's world fairs (1939 and 1963)-- but Homer's image of it was priceless!
It was a "salt water marsh" that got improved into a park-- (the swamp was filled in with the cities coal ashes for 30 years or so) but Homer was in desperate need of a bathroom when he saw a bus headed for the location..
He didn't think of the Town of Flushing.. but other thoughts entered his mind!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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He didn't think of the Town of Flushing.. but other thoughts entered his mind!
Well, if you want to go that route--
In the 70s, an advertisement appeared in the New York Subways; I can't remember what it was for, but the copy was "Brooklyn isn't Flushing."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Good one... Homer's Odd[sic]yssey!*  I'd always wondered how Flushing got its name. When I lived in Manhattan, my apt was in Chelsea, bordering Clinton. Coincidence, or....? --- *Ænigma wants [ode]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ah, Clinton-- the tenderloin district--
From the cop who was assigned to the area, and said-- Oh, it's no more chopped beef for us-- we're eatin' tenderloin now! --
Any one who saw the movie "sleepers" saw bits and peices of Clinton--
As for chelsea-- it was named for the same in england-- just as greenwich villiage was.(and it is till an irish part of town and has some great bars-- next time you're in NY, we can go to Moran's-- 10th Ave and 19th street-- right in the old meatpacking district.
I work steps away from the old "5 corners" -- a worse den of vice was not to be found-- but now at the edge of the civic center.. and all cleaned up.
the expression "23, skiddoo!" is from NY--
Wow-- my Boston area knowledge is not too good--
do you know the kiddy game--
Trot, trot to boston,
trot, trot to lynn?
are boston and lynn very close? Is lynn one of those town swallowed up into greater boston.. and lost?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Helen, Better chopped beef than chopped liver Yeah, I know that history stuff. I moonlighted as a tour guide atop those double-decker Grayline buses. Chelsea was so named because Clement Clarke Moore (he of "The Night Before Christmas" - or not? Doubt has been shed on his authorship recently) was the local developer, and his family was from Chelsea, London.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes-- i am sure you are right-- that the moore family developed the area and gave it a name..
Peter Stuyvenant had his country house on the east side-- with a long tree lined road coming up to the door-- a bowery-- and a section of NY is still called the bowery-- but now is more associated with bums-- its an area that has not yet been "gentrified" -- Chelsea has been. but parts are still pretty rough--
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I am right. I had to pass three tests.
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