amethyst, 3 months ago

@mariatta one of the reasons I really like “Bay Area” as a location, both informative and non-specific, and people familiar can ask for a city name if they care. By comparison, I always say I grew up “in Ohio” because almost nobody knows where Cincinnati is, even if they had heard of it, let alone the actual city/suburb of Cincinnati where I lived. Hell even people from the Cincinnati area usually hadn’t heard of the city I lived in. 😅

chrisjrn, 3 months ago

@amethyst
Isn't Cincinatti in Kentucky?
@mariatta

paulox, 3 months ago

@mariatta I do something very similar.

When I travel:
"I live close to Rome" 🏛️

In Italy:
"Io vivo a Pescara" 🏖️

bengerman, 3 months ago

@mariatta the closer I live to Seattle, the more I need to specify that I don't actually live in Seattle (currently, I live 5 blocks from city limits)

I am curious, though - do you say simply "Vancouver" if you're talking to someone from Portland, Oregon (which is across the river from another Vancouver)?

mariatta, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

@bengerman I say "Vancouver, Canada" when talking to people from USA 😅

terri, 3 months ago

@mariatta @bengerman as someone who lives near Portland, OR, we say "fake Vancouver" to refer to the Washington one when talking to Canadian friends. 😂

bengerman, 3 months ago

@terri @mariatta @bengerman
I was talking to my dad about Mariatta's Vancouver* and he was half-jokingly coming up with snarky differentiators, but he kept accidentally being ambiguous:

• the one up north (well, from Portland's perspective...)
• the big one (Washington's has more area, but Canada's has more people + a larger metro area)
• the one on the river (he didn't realize BC's was on a river)

*I submit "Mariatta's Vancouver" as the new canonical name

hugovk, 3 months ago

@bengerman @terri @mariatta MV, BC for short