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22 November 2005
Great street names. I particularly like →[More:]
Peabody Mews, in Baltimore. I hear a virtuosic katzenjammer in my mind's ear.
I like how side streets in the Old Port here are named after market goods. So you have "Milk Street" and "Pearl Street" and "Cotton Street". We also have a street called "Widgery Wharf" which is a funny name.
Oh, and a dirt road on family property upstate had to be named with the new 911 rules, so it's now "Rupert Road". Always liked that.
Oh, and when I was younger I got a kick out of "Broad Axe Road" near where my best friend lived.
Actually, that was one of those great roads you find in central Virginia. You could drive down it for maybe 20 minutes, in the woods, not thinking you were heading anywhere in particular, and then BAM you where in a completely different and interesting place. That's how roads work down there... you never think you're going to end up anywhere, but you always do.
All the streets in my hometown have biblical names (the town was founded by a kinda-crazy evangelist). I used to live on Gilboa, which I think is a mountain mentioned in the bible somewhere . . . .
The town on the other side of mine has two street names that perplexed me when I was little - Street Road and Second Street Pike. Redundant things perplexed me when I was a kid, I guess.
Second Street Pike reminds me of two more things that have redundant names, only now I'm greatly amused instead of perplexed:
A place to fish in New Jersey is called Ocean Park Coastal Beach, and then there is Miss Swan's Happy Pretty Beauty Nail Salon.
Aviators St.,Bacchus St. (now Barrone), Brooklyn Ave., Brutus St., Carondelet St (cayr-on-dah-lay, ohh it's so good to say),
Colapissa St.,Constantinople St., Demosthenes St.
I could go on and on, New Orleans wins every time. Charity, Desire, Piety...
Oh, and Ainslie, Maujer, and Ten Eyck. Especially Ten Eyck. I wish I lived on Ten Eyck. (It must be hard to give your address when you live on that street though: "No, the ten is part of the name not the number . . ."
Bridgeport has a Plankton Street. That's depressing to even contemplate. There's also a Bronx Avenue in Bridgeport, and a Bridgeport Avenue in the Bronx.
Up in the mountains the streets used to be unnamed, but the Post Office got all snifty and insisted. So the residents named them. Thus, as I drive through Yancey County on my way to my son's school, I pass Blues Chord Lane, Pokemon Circle, Passional Way, Unicorn Street and so on. It's great.
And I almost forgot, Asheville's most beloved street names: Coxe Avenue and Short Coxe Avenue. ;-) Once in a conversation about where to park downtown I actually said, "I always park on Coxe" to which my friend leered, "Yeah, baby, you sure do!"
Also, back in Bridgeport, all the other streets in me and pips neighborhood were named for trees (Elm, Sycamore etc) or were typical city avenue names (Noble, North, Boston) our street was called Edna Avenue. Probably named after some city father's ugly daughter.
Up in Northern Ontario, I have spotted Seldom Seen Road a few times. I have always liked passing Go-Home-Lake Road as well. 'Course, it's named after the nearby Go-Home Lake
It's not a street name, but a friend of my uncle's lived in a place called Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Even better, the guy's name was Milton Born with a Tooth. I think he was Sioux.
I grew up in a subdivision called Gay Farms, and all the streets were "happy" names: Blythe Drive, Easy Street, Jolly Lane, etc. I lived on Placid Avenue.
Can I cheat? It's MetaChat, of course I can cheat. I can't remember any road names but there's a creek in Texas (I think it's between San Antonio and Houston) called Hollering Woman Creek. I've always wondered what actually happened for it to earn that name.
North of Chicago, you eventually find an exit for Half Day Road. Yep, half a day's horse ride from Chicago.
In Chicago itself, you have a Goethe Street (pronounced, usually, Go-thee, but the cabbies generally know one or two variations). Then there's this old joke:
Q: What are three Chicago street names that rhyme with vagina?
A: Paulina, Regina & Lunt
I guess they aren't quite as great in and of themselves, though.
In my hometown there's this short cul-de-sac that was named Ba-Wood, apparently some combination of family names; and there was a development built by a dentist, so you have streets like Molar. And then there's Happy Hollow ... Lane, Road, and School. There's a bunch of cheesy ones in the same area, such as Shady Ln., Easy St. And off along a highway there's a sign for Back Rd.
I like a bunch of the street names in Portland because they were Matt Groening's inspiration for a bunch of the Simpsons characters: Burnside, Flanders, Lovejoy, etc.
Plus, in NW Portland, the streets go alphabetically: Burnside, Couch (Pronounced "cooch". I know, I know.), Davis, etc. all the way to Vaughn.
Punta means end (full stop) or point in spanish as far as I know (unless I am learning new slang right now, the hard way), so either that mexican family was taking the piss or you mean puta (which means whore).
In San Francisco, I like Treat Street, Burritt Street (which often gets vandalized to read "Burritto Street"), and Gough Street (which rhymes with "Duff," but I like to pronounce it as "Goo Street").
There's a neighborhood near where I grew up that has several street names from Macbeth: MacDuff Court, Leafy Woods Court, Hecate Court, and Inverness Woods Court.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
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