I was talking to the traffic guy at work this morning and he asked me what Springfield was called. I told him it was the "City of Homes." I guess he didn't believe me because when we spoke a little later, he told me I was right...after he looked it up online.
Yeah. He thought it was so dumb that I was making a joke. As if I were saying it's the city of trees because it has trees in it. No. Sacramento is the city of trees.
Where did these nicknames come from? Did one of the founders look over Springfield and say, "I see a lot of homes here. You could, in fact, say that it is a city of homes."
To which his companion/sidekick would say, "I agree sir, but wouldn't that be true of all cities?"
And our founder would reply, "No. Only my town has homes. All the others have houses. No sausage for you tonight."
People were mean back then.
Are you interested in some of the other nicknames for our Western Mass cities? Grand! I will tell you!
West Springfield: West Side! Yeah...because it's the west side of Springfield. Another brilliant observation.
Amherst: (there are actually two...and they are gems) A-town and The Herst. Wow...really? Ok, so let's start off with "The Herst." Did somebody think that was cool in, like, 1983?
"Yo, I'm stoked to the max that I'm going to The Herst today. Totally."
Riiiiiight...and I don't even want to start with "A-town." I'm guessing that was an insult because it looks too much like another "a-" word.
Northampton: (another twofer) Hamp and NoHo. Hamp is about as cool as Herst. Scratch that. Hamp about as bodacious as Herst. I'm pretty sure they just stole NoHo from New York.
The final two that I have today are nothing special but I will give them honorable mentions because they are good from a business point of view.
Holyoke is Paper City and Westfield is Whip City. Holyoke is a good supplier of paper and Westfield sells a lot of whips. Which, for some reason, are still in demand even though nobody rides horses. I can't figure that out. I'll have to look it up.
So there you have it. I don't want you to think I'm making fun of Western Mass. I just wanted to keep it local. I could do this all day if I looked at every city in America. Remember Sacramento? It's the city of Trees. Wait...are you saying there are trees there? WOW! That's some keen observational skills! (heavy on the Sacramento sarcasm)
I'm off to The Herst...because it is rad to the max.
Enjoy!
-DJ
Showing posts with label northampton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label northampton. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
sparkles
Whew...it has been too long since I've blogged. I'm sorry about that. This has been a very crazy week for me. That is what I am here to tell you about!
So, you may have heard that I was an extra in a movie. For two whole days! Wow! It's true. I was "Pedestrian 185" for the movie they were filming in Northampton. They liked my pedestrianing so much on Tuesday that they asked me to come back and pedestriate again on Wednesday. You should have seen me walk up and down the street in Northampton, you would have thought that I was walking my whole life. And you know what? You'd be right!
It was fun. I have never been involved with a big budget movie, so I was interested in how the whole thing went down. For an extra like me, it was a whole lot of standing and walking. And no, I did not see Mel Gibson. I didn't really care if I did. I think most of the extras just wanted to try out the whole "extra" thing. I talked to a lot of people and nobody really seemed to care if they met Mel. Most people just wanted to do something different. A lot of them were folks in the Screen Actors Guild and they were just trying to make a living from acting and being an extra is a good way to get some cash. I don't envy them. It has to be tough trying to make it in the movie business.
You wanna know who didn't have fun? A lot of folks from Northampton. There were a LOT of unhappy pedestrians. Not paid pedestrians like me. People who just walk for free (why would anyone walk for free???). What was interesting was listening to some of the people who were supposedly upset. I was set up on the street and people could sit to the left of me and they would be out of the camera shot. They were complaining about the movie being made there, but they sat there forever watching the whole process. This happened with a whole bunch of people. They sat and complained and watched me walk up and down the street. I guess they were so mad about the inconvenience that they couldn't move. Sometimes I get so mad that I'll hold my breath, so I can understand where they are coming from.
Overall, I had a nice couple of days getting paid to walk. We had to fill out legal stuff so we could get a check sent to us. The cool thing was that the sheet had a spot for us to put our "actor name." I put down Sparkles. So if you see the credits for Edge of Darkness, look for the name Sparkles. I was thinking of making it Sparkles McAwesome, but I don't think I could fool anybody into thinking that I'm Irish.
I'm off to pedestriate. I really hope that word doesn't mean something bad.
Enjoy!
-DJ
So, you may have heard that I was an extra in a movie. For two whole days! Wow! It's true. I was "Pedestrian 185" for the movie they were filming in Northampton. They liked my pedestrianing so much on Tuesday that they asked me to come back and pedestriate again on Wednesday. You should have seen me walk up and down the street in Northampton, you would have thought that I was walking my whole life. And you know what? You'd be right!
It was fun. I have never been involved with a big budget movie, so I was interested in how the whole thing went down. For an extra like me, it was a whole lot of standing and walking. And no, I did not see Mel Gibson. I didn't really care if I did. I think most of the extras just wanted to try out the whole "extra" thing. I talked to a lot of people and nobody really seemed to care if they met Mel. Most people just wanted to do something different. A lot of them were folks in the Screen Actors Guild and they were just trying to make a living from acting and being an extra is a good way to get some cash. I don't envy them. It has to be tough trying to make it in the movie business.
You wanna know who didn't have fun? A lot of folks from Northampton. There were a LOT of unhappy pedestrians. Not paid pedestrians like me. People who just walk for free (why would anyone walk for free???). What was interesting was listening to some of the people who were supposedly upset. I was set up on the street and people could sit to the left of me and they would be out of the camera shot. They were complaining about the movie being made there, but they sat there forever watching the whole process. This happened with a whole bunch of people. They sat and complained and watched me walk up and down the street. I guess they were so mad about the inconvenience that they couldn't move. Sometimes I get so mad that I'll hold my breath, so I can understand where they are coming from.
Overall, I had a nice couple of days getting paid to walk. We had to fill out legal stuff so we could get a check sent to us. The cool thing was that the sheet had a spot for us to put our "actor name." I put down Sparkles. So if you see the credits for Edge of Darkness, look for the name Sparkles. I was thinking of making it Sparkles McAwesome, but I don't think I could fool anybody into thinking that I'm Irish.
I'm off to pedestriate. I really hope that word doesn't mean something bad.
Enjoy!
-DJ
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)