On Wed, 27 Mar 2002, Ken Follett wrote:

> Close call. We is from Besemer. I to be frm B-dale afore that.

My favorite Ithaca Journal headline (front page, above the fold) was
"LIZARD STUNS BROOKTONDALE".  I cut it out and incorporated it as the
centerpiece of a montage of clippings and pictures.

> Bullamanka ain't noplace nearby GSF, more like Lisle & Richford, or possibly
> Spenser.

I seem to recall Richford being the crossroads with a sign claiming to be
the birthplace of John D. Rockefeller.

Lisle (or Center Lisle) and Richford are very much part of the GSF.  As I
understand it, from reading the Ithaca papers, the GSF is the territory
separating Ithaca from the freeways and the Thruway.  So we're talking
about the same area.  Spenser is nearby.

Upstate NY has some definite and widely understood regions, including the
Southern Tier (the strip of counties along the Pennsylvania borner) and
CNY (centering on Syracuse).  Ithaca and its vicinity are awkwardly in
neither one, which only adds to the sort of off-the-map Lake Wobegon
mystique of the area.  I have even seen it argued that Tompkins County (or
Ithaca) is not part of Upstate New York at all; from that standpoint, the
GSF could be understood as the irritated region surrounding a pustule.

Some enthusiastic brochures speak of the "Finger Lakes Region", to which
Ithaca would clearly belong, but the Finger Lakes spread across such a
wide area that it's a meaningless term except as a tourist destination.
In southern Michigan, we have the "Cabinet Counties", nine counties named
in 1829 for members of Andrew Jackson's first cabinet, but collectively
the are in two clumps and don't make a meaningful region.

Southern Michigan got most of its place names from upstate New York, but
it hadn't occurred to me before that Bessemer MI (in the far northwest)
may have gotten its name from Besemer NY.

Respelling and repronounciation of place names are par for the course.
Upstate NYers (referring to Syracuse's county) say "On-on-DAH-guh",
Michiganders (referring to a small town in Ingham County) say
"On-on-DAY-guh".  Our local TV station when I was a kid would constantly
remind us about its "transmitting facilities in Onondaga" (emphasis on
DAY).  When I came to Cornell and heard how people pronounced Onondaga, it
sounded terribly affected to me, like "toe-MAH-toe" for tomato.

                                    Larry

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com
Mailing address: P.O. Box 2563, Ann Arbor MI 48106

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