Industry-Related Nicknames

Today's Word of the Day, Cream City, is one of many outdated nicknames for American cities based on former industrial dominance. The cream-colored bricks used to build many of Milwaukee's buildings in the 19th century and onward were originally fired in the city. While many organizations in Milwaukee still use the old Cream City namesake, Brew City is a much more common nickname for Milwaukee, whose dominance in the beer industry prevails in the minds of Milwaukeeans and other Americans alike.

Other similar nicknames, just off the top of my head, include:

• Underwear Capital of the World, given to Knoxville, TN for its former prominence in textiles
• Porkopolis, given to Cincinnati, OH for its pork industry dominance
• Steel City is still a popular nickname for Pittsburgh, PA, but with the recent closing of several steel mills pointing to a city in transition, perhaps this nickname will eventually go the way of these other more obscure monikers

Can you think of any other ones?

Best,

Tom @ City Dictionary

Oh, btw, if any of you nerds want to whip out your stylebooks and take me to task over the capitalization of hyphenated words in titles, give me your best shot.

Cream brick image source

Leave LeBron Alone!

It seems the backlash from LeBron's public announcement to leave Cleveland is far from over. LeBron recently said in an interview that race played a part in the negative publicity he has received since his ESPN special on July 8th. His comments set off commentary from some prominent figures. In particular, Charles Barkley had this to say about LeBron's recent behavior, in light of the new comments about race: "Just when you think it couldn't get any stupider, it gets more stupid."Read more

Unfortunately for the Miami forward, new language has been coined that likens LeBron to a traitor. In fact, King James' first name has become a verb. To LeBron is "to string people along and betray them," with the past tense being "LeBron'd." Ouch.

While I don't have a stance, official or unofficial, on which to stand concerning LeBron's behavior, I must admit that it's painful to see someone get dragged through the mud for a thousandth time in a few months because he has an opinion about the way he's been treated.

Vote for the Local Word of the Year!

We've narrowed it down to five great finalist--meat raffle, neutral ground, polio water, sconnie, and slugging--and now it's your turn to pick your favorite for the Local Word of the Year. All you need to do is vote here. I have given a short audio explanation for each of them to refresh your memory. If you want to see my more thorough take on each term, see our Local Words of the Year blog post.

Vote before Tuesday, January 12th, when the winning word will be announced.

May the best word win!

Tom from City Dictionary

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A few important notes, updates:

Special thanks to cswriter for tipping me off to the important fact that the first "neutral ground" in New Orleans was the median of Canal Street, which formed a boundary between the old French and Spanish parts and the newer American part.

Simonk01 on Twitter informed me that meat raffles take place in Britain. Also, after looking at the Wikipedia entry for meat raffle, I noticed that concept is called a meat draw in Northern Britain, and and meat tray in Australia and New Zealand. Finally, special thanks to Twitter users krispywi and mangolassie for writing a great meat raffle entry.