Tag Archives: Avenue of the Americas

Talking Local

2 Replies

I was on an uptown bus shortly after the advent of automated announcements. Here’s a printed list of some stops along the route:

Everything sounded fine in the 80s and 90s. I heard “next stop West 86th Street and Broadway,” and so on up the line. Then came “next stop One Hundred and Oneth Street.” I didn’t bother writing to the MTA, the governing body of public transit in New York City. I knew that thousands of New Yorkers would have already informed the agency of this mistake. (Complaining about public transit — complaining about everything! — is one of New Yorkers’ favorite pastimes.)

Last week I was on the same bus. Sure enough, the announcement had been changed. Notice I say “changed,” not “corrected,” because the revised version was “One Oh First Street.” “One OH” mimics New Yorkers’ usage for building numbers. No local would say, “I work at two hundred and five Madison Avenue. It’s “2 OH 5 Madison Avenue.” But that form isn’t for street names, and “One OH” doesn’t pair with “First.” The stop should be “One Hundred and First Street.” Why? Because that’s how we locals say it.

The crosstown bus in my neighborhood initially presented a problem also. Note the third stop on this list, which is located across from the stables housing NYPD horses:

For the first year or so, the automated announcement placed the accent on the second syllable (transVERSE). Eventually the accent was moved to the first syllable, where it should be (TRANSverse).

Last one. If you’re a visitor to NYC and ask for directions to a spot on “the Avenue of the Americas,” chances are you’ll be met with a puzzled frown. If you’re lucky, the person will respond, “Ya mean Sixth Avenue?” The name was changed in 1945 when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia hoped to entice Central and South American countries to build consulates there. The city hung country medallions and these signs:

More realistic, in its route listings the MTA opted for the term bus and subway riders actually use:

Ditto in its maps. Check the vertical lines, which represent avenues. Right in the center you’ll see “Sixth Avenue”:

If there’s a moral to this story, it’s that we’re all local where we live, but we’re all nonlocal where we don’t. Be patient with someone who asks where “East Two OH Fifth Steet” is. Actually, be patient with everyone, as often as you can. These tense times demand our best efforts!

Lemon Ranch

5 Replies

Tucked inside the thousands of words written about presidential politics recently was this sentence: “Richard Nixon was raised on a lemon ranch.” New Yorker that I am, my exposure to agricultural terms comes mostly from the  vegetable aisle in the supermarket and a few television shows.  I’d always envisioned a “ranch” as a place where cattle or other animals live. And indeed, the first definition of “ranch” in my dictionary is “a large farm for raising horses, beef cattle, or sheep.” But I had to put aside my mental image of young Dick Nixon roping citrus fruit — and how much fun it was to think about that instead of current events! — when I saw the second definition, which is “a farm or area devoted to a particular specialty.” Further searching showed me that many Californians work on “lemon ranches.” But in Florida, Belize, and Sicily, lemon “orchards,” “groves,” and “farms” predominate. So now I know what term to use in the unlikely event that I go right to the source for my fruit.

Knowing the favored regional expression may not guarantee that you’ll be mistaken for a native, but at least you won’t shout your status as a tourist. And who wants to sound like a tourist? With this in mind, here are a few mistakes I heard recently from visitors to NYC:

  • “Avenue of the Americas.” Big mistake. To New Yorkers, this street is “Sixth Avenue,” and many won’t know what you’re talking about if you use the official name. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia tried to do away with the term “Sixth Avenue” in 1945, hoping that Central and South American countries would build consulates there. The plan didn’t work, and the new name didn’t either.

Where?

Where?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • “I caught the subway at 96th Street.” Nope. You can catch a bus (or a railroad train), but you “get on” or “take” a subway. I’m not sure why. Most commuters in New York run madly for the subway as if it were the last rocket leaving an exploding planet, but they don’t “catch” it.
  • “She works in Bronx.” Nope again. It’s “the Bronx.” Why? That area was once a farm belonging to the Broncks, a Dutch family. You won’t find any farms in “the Bronx” (or lemon ranches either), but the name stuck, with slightly different spelling.

I could say more about talking like a New Yorker. (For starters, it’s “tawking like a New Yawker.”) But I’ll stop now so I can catch the subway from the Avenue of the Americas to Bronx.