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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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Hmmm. I wonder why we have no nicknames for the cities in Canada. The closest we get to a nickname is when talking about Toronto; same people shorten it to T-O. There is really nothing remotely cute or representative about it.
The Big Smoke, The Big Apple, The City of Angels. Quite distinct, and most people know exactly where they are.
Does anyone have any more out there?
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Joined: Jul 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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Does anyone have anymore out there?
Well, Cincinnati has two rather contradictory nicknames: the Queen City and the Flying Pig City.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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All right, I'm nearly afraid to ask...Flying Pig City????
I can't even imagine what would bring about such a nickname. I do remember a tv sitcom called WKRP in Cincinnati, in which turkeys were thrown out of a helicopter on Thanksgiving (the owner thought they could fly). I am really hoping this is not what brought about the Flying Pig nickname. Porcine parachuting?
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Does anyone have any more out there?
NZ's largest City Auckland (Tamaki Makarau) is widely known as The City of Sails
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>The Big Apple
minneapolis (when it's not clumped as the twin cities) is somewhat derisively referred to as the minnie apple.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Does anyone have any more out there?
A few that would be reasonably well recognized within Australia, but probably not outside it(?) are:
Sydney - The Harbour City
Adelaide - The City of Churches
Alice Springs - The Alice
Broken Hill, New South Wales - The Silver City (probably one of several around the world)
More universally perhaps (but not in Australia!):
Motown
Tinseltown (although I guess strictly it's just referring to one part of a larger city, and the predominant industry therein)
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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side note, side note...
>Adelaide - The City of Churches
I wonder how it compares to Québec. Québec is the bastion of Catholicism in Canada. You can`t spit without hitting a church.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I claim "The Big Smoke (or just "The Smoke") for London - it was so known during at least the late C19 - I'd have to trawl through some of my deeply buried notes, but I think I have a reference from the 1880s. In the C18 and early C19, Cobbett, (that wonderfully irascible reporter who thought that potatoes were fit only for pigs and Irishmen - though perhaps a little too good for the latter!) invariably refered to Londonas "The Great Wen" - but that was before the Industrial Revoution had made London really smoky. I have a feeling that Edinbuurgh had its soubriquet of "Auld Reekie" long before that - am I right, Jo? Maybe the inhabitants could afford bigger and better fires than the Londoners - or maybe it's because Edinburgh is a damned cold place! 
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old hand
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old hand
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All right, I'm nearly afraid to ask...Flying Pig City????
I can't even imagine what would bring about such a nickname
If I remember correctly, the nickname comes from the days when Cincinnati was a major pork producing city. I assume it refers to the little piggies' souls going up to heaven.
Somewhat morbid? Yes, but I didn't make it up.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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In reply to:
Max Quordlepleen wrote: "NZ's largest City Auckland (Tamaki Makarau) is widely known as The City of Sails"
Max is, of course, using the marketing term for Auckland. To the rest of NZ, it is almost universally referred to (or at least thought of) as Jafaland. This is thought of, in polite circles, as a reference to "Jaffas", a small, spheroid, orange-flavoured sweet (candy) which children used to throw at the movie screen or roll down the wooden floors of picture theatres.
The truth is less prosaic. "Jafa", in this instance, is a polite acronym for "Just Another F---g Aucklander". Jafaland is the natural extension of the adjective to a place name. As you do. In the vernacular, of course.
There is an endearing and enduring popular belief that Auckland, our largest city, exists solely as a repository for all the crazed, demented souls in Godzone who regard "Shortland Street" as the acme or sine qua non of New Zealand culture.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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