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Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 1:08 am
by Miss Mellie
alietr wrote:You want difficult? I used to have a job that involved finding addresses in Malta. The only thing is that, in many cases, they don't number the houses, they name them. So I'd be wandering up and down the street (fortunately they tend to be small streets) looking for "Cottage by the Sea" or "St. Mary's" on Birzebugga St. or somesuch. One can only imagine what their emergency responders do.
The same thing happens in the Caribbean. One night, I watched a house across the bay burn to the ground while the fire trucks criss-crossed up and down the hillside. No one was injured (the house was empty - it turned out the fire was a failed attempt at insurance fraud) but it was pretty horrifying to watch.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:21 am
by alietr
We go to an island off the coast of Maine each year, and because of 911, they have had to assign names to all of the "roads" (usually no more than a long sandy driveway with one, sometimes more, houses along it). Most of the time the road is named after the people living on it.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:50 am
by the_phil
alietr wrote:...Most of the time the road is named after the people living on it.
I think that's the standard for new street names. A coworker of mine built a house on his land, which was set back ~300 yards from the existing road with a paved driveway. Apparently the U.S. post office wants to name those types of "streets". Since it was essentially his driveway, they basically let him pick whatever street name he wanted. He chose to go the standard boring name-it-after-himself route; I guess his aim was lasting posterity?

Personally, I'd go for something that I'd always get a kick out of when telling people my address. Something like "Doyouknowthe Way" or "Memory Lane".

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:49 am
by bomtr
I was postmaster of a town that had a road called 'Pull and Be Damned Road.' Think that's my favorite.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:05 pm
by Paucle
Baud Lover Boulevard to acknowledge my online addiction?
as a Yankee fan, ARod Road ?
Lena Lane, for my niece?
Retest Street in homage to what I'll probably be doing every other January until I die?
Yell Alley, if I were in a different kind of wordplay mood.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 6:15 pm
by dhkendall
alietr wrote:We go to an island off the coast of Maine each year, and because of 911, they have had to assign names to all of the "roads" (usually no more than a long sandy driveway with one, sometimes more, houses along it). Most of the time the road is named after the people living on it.
Because of the need for emergency services to get to the road, or because of the step up in security after the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001?

(Serious question, your post is a little vague, and it could conceivably be either ... )

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 6:21 pm
by alietr
For normal fire and ambulance service to be able to find an address. I don't think small islands off the coast of Maine are high on Al Qaeda's list.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 6:27 pm
by gloriaclemente
bomtr, where are you from? I know that road (assuming there is only one!)

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 6:32 pm
by bomtr
There could be only one of those, I think. I'm in Bellingham, gloria-Kathy. No longer PM of La Conner, though.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 7:22 pm
by gloriaclemente
My mom lives in Ferndale, my husband grew up on Whidbey, and we plan to retire in Anacortes! Small world... Do you know how the road got its name?

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 10:45 pm
by trainman
dhkendall wrote:I came across one for (I'll make up an address) 24-70 Smithfield Rd. (This should mean, to anyone with a brain, 70 Smithfield Rd., Apartment 24.)
Watch out if you ever need to find an address in the borough of Queens.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:27 pm
by davey
trainman wrote:
dhkendall wrote:I came across one for (I'll make up an address) 24-70 Smithfield Rd. (This should mean, to anyone with a brain, 70 Smithfield Rd., Apartment 24.)
Watch out if you ever need to find an address in the borough of Queens.
Yes! In Queens 24-70 Smithfield Road would mean house no. 70 east of 24th St. The apt. no. comes after, usually on a new line. I've lived other places, but I've never seen an apartment number listed before the address...

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 2:40 pm
by soxfan99
In Boston there's the fun idiosyncrasy that multiple streets in different parts of the city will share a name. If you want to go to Washington St (the downtown street that connects the Boston Common with City Hall Plaza), be careful not to end up instead on Washington St (a street running through one of the most dangerous sections of town in the Dorchester neighborhood), or on Washington St (a tree-lined boulevard in Jamaica Plain). At one point, Washington St in JP and in Dorchester are only 1 mile away from each other. Get on the wrong one, and good luck finding the cross street you're looking for. Just one more reason to not attempt to drive in Boston.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:37 pm
by alietr
Piffle. In Arlington, VA, every street is named Glebe. And every street in Atlanta is named Peachtree.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:54 pm
by Rex Kramer
alietr wrote:Piffle. In Arlington, VA, every street is named Glebe.
The best parts are that West Glebe is east of South Glebe and North Glebe, and South Glebe is north of East Glebe and West Glebe.

Rex

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 6:46 pm
by dhkendall
alietr wrote:For normal fire and ambulance service to be able to find an address. I don't think small islands off the coast of Maine are high on Al Qaeda's list.
Hey, paranoia doesn't care about things like feasibility. :)

Out in cottage country here (eastern Manitoba and "northwest Ontario" (Ontario west of Thunder Bay)) I've noticed that the roads are called something like "Fire Road 17" for 911 purposes.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 7:15 pm
by Vanya
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition Al Qaeda in Maine!

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:19 pm
by Woof
Rex Kramer wrote:
alietr wrote:Piffle. In Arlington, VA, every street is named Glebe.
The best parts are that West Glebe is east of South Glebe and North Glebe, and South Glebe is north of East Glebe and West Glebe.
That sounds remarkably like the geography of my Alma Mater, which at the time of my attendance had four dorms:North, East, West and Marks Hall (colloquially known as South, of course). Alas, they were arranged in a square such that South was west of North and north of West. East was also south of North. :roll:

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:53 pm
by Paucle
And among pond scum, everybody is named Mookie.

Re: Pet Intellectual Peeves

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:08 pm
by econgator
Paucle wrote:And among pond scum, everybody is named Mookie.
It is if you live in Boston!