We like our "O's," our "A's," and our "R's!"

Roar!
Okay, that's just funny.

I didn't even think about that, I just simply typed "Roar" because it was the first thing I said and the clearly natural thing to do.

It coincidentally contains the very letters I'm referring to.

And if you LIVE where *I* live, it's pronounced...Rrrrrrr-OAR!

Or, "Rrrr-OR - now, fuck off" if you're being short and curt and just trying to get rid of the annoying person who is asking you to say "Roar" 18 times when you're trying to do something else constructive with your life.


Go ahead.
Practice it a few times.
Let it roll off the tongue.
I'll wait.

filing my nails while I wait in an East Coast style where it's a curved arch verses West Coast style which is flat and straight across...

There's been a lot of talk lately in my world about accents.  Because of this, I've decided to do a several part series on Western New York and a little bit about what it's like to live here.

I live in Rochester, New York.
Upstate.
Rochester.
It's not Row-chess-ter.

stare

If you pronounce it that way, we will throw you off the bridge into the Genesee River (pronounced Jenna-see River) and they'll find your washed up body sometime in spring.

You don't want that, do you?
No, I didn't think so.

It's pronounced RAh (like Rah, Rah, Rah - Eye of Ra) - chester.
A lot of us will draw the Rah out like:  RAAaaah - chester.

We LOVE our Hard A's here.
We never drop our R's.
And our O's are special to us - but sometimes get trumped by our innate need to turn them into soft A's.

Chicago's accent isn't very far removed from ours.
I could understand what everyone was saying when I lived there.

We say Pop.
Not soda.
POP

We have white hots and red hots.
Red hots are beef.
White hots are pork.
You'll order a white hot and a hamburger; not a hot dog and a Burger.

We're surrounded by a lot of Native American names.  Tonowanda (Ton like Don with a "T"-a-Wan-da),  Irondequoit (Irrr-on-da-kwoit), Seneca, Syracuse, Canadaigua (CAN-i like in the word id-dagg like day with a g at the end-wa) and of course, Buffalo.

Hence our famous Buffalo Wings.
...and pizza that kicks ass - even better than Chicago.
though that will always be a cold war

We do NOT say Harrible.
There's no A in horrible.
It's HORRible.
Like whore-ible.

It's not finance like finnesse.
It's FI-NANCE.
With the emphasis on FI like the beginning of FIve.

We don't have Junior-Senior Proms here.
We have a Junior Prom and a Senior Ball.
They're not the same thing.

We have a town called Chili.
It's not like the food or the cold ass weather we sport.
It's pronounced CHI-LIE.

We have a place called Charlotte beach.  It's not much of a beach, it's more like some dirty sand that backs up to Lake Ontario with hospital syringes washed up on it, but it's still proudly ours.

It's NOT pronounced like the town in North Carolina.
That's Char-LET.
This is Char-LOT.

The town Avon is not pronounced like the Avon Make-up company.
It's pronounced AV like the beginning of Avenue-ON.
It's our exception to the beloved hard A rule.

It's not a swimsuit, it's a bathing suit.
It's not tennies or tennis shoes; they're sneakers.
It's not a highway, it's simply:  I-90, 590N, 390W.

If it takes more than 10-15 minutes to get there; it's far away to us.

Our traffic area is called the "Can of Worms"

We have things like Florida rooms - which is just a back porch that's been enclosed with a few windows.

We have storm doors and windows.

We have Lake Effect snow, which means we essentially, make our own snow on top of what gets dumped on us.

We have Canadian coins mixed in with our change.  No one tries to use their paper money here or their $1 (loonie) or $2 (toonie) coins; but you will see their pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters.

Vending machines usually spit them out, but you can use them at stores.

I didn't realize until recently, well, today - that people actually pronounce the word chocolate (cho-co-late) a different way than us, which is:  chalklit.  I want extra credit for using a K instead of a C there.

We are not like Brooklyn or Albany.
We don't add W's in the middle of words.
It's HOT (like NOT); not hawt.
It's TAL (like tall)-K; not tawlk.

We drive our cars to the park and pronounce every r in that sentence.
We don't say N'York- ever.
We always say the full New York City.

In Southern states the plural of you all is: y'all.
In Upstate New York the plural of you all is: yous.

Unless you're talking about more than one person; in which case it's:  yous twos.
laughs...true...

WE WILL SAY "YOU PEOPLE" - and it means EXACTLY THAT.
You people - whatever group of people you're referring to.
It's not gender specific or racially specific.

If I have a bunch of four year olds in front of me and I say, "You people need a beating!" - I mean the group of four year olds in front of me.

If I'm at a family gathering and I say, "You people need a beating!" - I mean the whole group of family members in front of me.

If my kids are in front of me and I say, "You people need a beating!" - I mean yous guys need a beating.

It's not complicated.
No one takes offense.

Okay, one obnoxious thing we do that I must admit is - you'll hear a lot of fer in place of for.  For is suppose to sound like the number four.  Here it mostly takes on the sound of fur or fer.

It's not pleasant.

Points go to Albany for knowing how to say the word for.

We don't have Bar-B-Ques.
We have cook outs.

We don't have washrooms or water closets; we have bathrooms.
It's not a parka; it's a coat or jacket.
If someone said, "yonder" we'd know they were a tourist.
Fuck you is sometimes a term of endearment.
"Not for nothing" was a hard phrase habit to break.

"The City" is New York City.
"Downtown" is Rochester.

We are home of the World Famous "Garbage Plates" - which to this day I can't bring myself to eat.  I have been quoted saying, "I'm not eating anything that results in making a plate stick to a table like that."

I do, however, enjoy the thrill of living through the parking lot on the way to the doors of the restaurant.  That's always a challenge at 3am.

We have our own landmark version of Monopoly here in Rochester called "City in a Box" and  the Garbage Plate restaurant called Nick Tahou's is featured in it.

We have the best cheesecake in the World.
Yes, I said it... best pizza (shut up Chicago!) and best cheesecake...

Cot and caught do NOT sound like the same words here!
Oh my God
Cot - the ot is like the beginning of otter.
Caught - rhythms with sought.

Pin and Pen do NOT sound like the same words here!
Pin - like Tin.
Pen - like Zen.

Don and dawn do NOT sound like the same words here!
Don - the 'on' is exactly that, ON.
Dawn - rhythms with fawn.

We like the word "the" - you're not going "to hospital" you're going "to THE hospital".
Don't dis the "the!"
LOVE the "THE!"
And you'll be taking "THE I-90" to do it!

Newscasters need to stop saying, "The white stuff is heading our way" and just call it "snow" because it's not candy-coating it in the least for any of us.  We're not new here.  Just say what you mean, "You're going to be buried under a fuckload of snow soon.  See you in April!"

Fine.

Doctor sounds more like DOCK-tor here.

We like the looooong O's... even if they sound like a hair away from being an Aaaah.
Daaahktor.

Fantastic is emphasized like this:  FAN-TAS-tick.

I just found this - and I LOVE this guy!
NEW YORK ENGLISH!
He's dead on!
I must meet him.
I'll be writing him later.







/laughs...he says, "Oh my God" like I do in that above one...




I can HEAR my accent when I say, "This" and "That".

lmfao...
Responses to greetings:

Responses should be short and positive.
Why?  Because no one cares about your troubles or the state of your mental health.  If you want to have a conversation, hire a therapist or go talk to the bartender.

Oh my God - I freakin' LOVE this guy.
Yes.
We must be friends.

WE LIKE FAST!
We like to drive fast.
Move fast.
TALK fast.
Shop fast.
Get in and out of whatever store FAST.

This is NOT offensive!
This is efficient!

No loitering!
Move along!

You've received your food from the drive thru.  Great!  We're fucking happy for you - now get your ass OUT OF THE WAY!  Sort out the shit in your car on YOUR time!  We don't care where you do it, just DON'T DO IT HERE!

And you're not allowed to get indignant when someone beeps the horn at you because you're an inconsiderate prick and should know better.  You know you're fucking up the fine art of drive thru cuisine.  MOVE IT!

Always use your blinker...but for the LOVE OF GOD, you only need to give about 5 seconds of notice before you execute.  It's not a negotiation!  It's not a give and take.  You're just informing the rest of us that you're going to do "this" and we should not plow into you in the process of you doing "that" - We're good!  Right on.  Noted.  Now DO IT and get it OVER WITH.  We've got places to go!

"Excuse Me" is not a give and take either.  "Excuse Me" is similar to the above.  I'm not asking  you to move at your discretion.  It's simply a polite way of telling you to get the fuck out of my way.

It's much more polite than, "MOVE IT, INGRATE!  DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL ON THE SHORT BUS?  YOU SEE ME STANDING HERE, RIGHT?  DO I LOOK LIKE I'VE GOT ALL GOD DAMN DAY TO WAIT AROUND FOR YOU TO DECIDE THAT YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING OTHER THAN BE IN MY WAY!"

Oh my God...

If approach #1 doesn't work; you always have approach #2 to fall back on.
It's good to have a back-up plan.

And that person would have to SUCK IT UP AND TAKE it.
They're IN THE WRONG.

If you're holding up production in any way, you're in the wrong and you owe everyone an apology.

Okay!
That's today's lesson!
You people take care, I got a thing...

I love this state...