For Cyburbians from the Mitten

[Dan]

http://michigannative.com/

Do you miss the feel of the sand between your toes? The sound of a robin just before dawn? The excitement of slaloming at high speed...

...perhaps across six lanes of traffic on I-696?

Welcome to the MichiganNative.com community, a place for natives and expatriates who miss... home.

Sounds like they could almost be describing a Buffalo accent in there, especially when it comes to company names as possessives.

 

[mendelman]

nice find, Dan!

I sometimes get a little too nostalgic for my state of birth. Unfortunately, Michigan doesn't have any urbanism even close to Chicago's. Luckily, I still have a Great Lake here.

I do miss the forests of Northern Lower Michigan.

As for the accent, I think the webmaster is a bit off about the ancestral origins of Michigan natives. He grewup in western lower Michigan where many of the ancestors were of Northern European origin, but the rest of lower Peninsula is predominantly western European (German, French, Irish) and many, many Poles.

I hate the accent of making business names possessives. My mother-in-law does it and it makes me cringe.

 

[Maister]

No that's not misspelled. They meant to do that. It's part of the Michigan 'Cool Cities' initiative. Maybe the rest of you haven't heard, but the state is giving oodles of money to cities that figure out new ways to become 'cool'. Grrarapids (formerly 'Grand Rapids') changed its name recently. Kalamazoo currently has a proposal pending to change its name to 'KakalawhackmyZoo!' The name change would bring much national attention and attract lots of 20-30 yr old creative classer's. I also heard that Lansing was going to change it's name to "Chillinlikeavillain" Has anyone else heard anything about this?

 

[SW MI Planner]

I just wanted to say that, if Detroit was the anus of the US, Flint would be about sixty miles up it, hee hee!

That's too funny.

 

[Planderella]

What's in a name? A city with a stupid name is still the same to me.

 

[pete-rock]

I hate the accent of making business names possessives. My mother-in-law does it and it makes me cringe.

That's definitely not unique to Michigan (my home state). Here in Chicago, you'll hear Jewels for Jewel Food Store, and it's usually said as, "I'm goin' to da Jewels..."

Cool site, but it definitely has a mid-Michigan and West Michigan slant.

 

[Maister]

I hate the accent of making business names possessives. My mother-in-law does it and it makes me cringe.

This is one of my pet language peeves, too. [schoolmarm hat on] We have a sports bar in town called "Sport's Page" (sic). One time I ask the waitress if I can talk to 'Sport' (it's his page after all)....she didn't get it of course. Even in official government documents you find ubiquitous misuse of the plural/posessive rule. I have a standing offer that if someone can show me a restaurant menu that doesn't have a single instance of violating this particular grammatical rule I'll buy them a cruise to the Bahamas [schoolmarm hat off/]

 

[michaelskis]

Note to everyone... it is not a mitten... it is a pair of gloves... Here is what you do... take your right hand and look and your palm with your fingers together, that your thumb slightly out. Then take your left and do the same, but rotate it clockwise 90 degrees and the tip of your little finger on your left hand should be slightly above the middle finger of your right hand.

That is Michigan!!!

As for the name... I hear that next year Detroit will no longer have a name. It will just be the 131. (You can thank 8mile for that)

 

[SW MI Planner]

We have a sports bar in town called "Sport's Page" (sic).

On an unrelated note, I was always wondering what the heck (sic) meant. How about explaining

 

[Richmond Jake]

On an unrelated note, I was always wondering what the heck (sic) meant. How about explaining

sic [ sik ]

adverb

thus or so: thus or so, used within brackets to indicate that what precedes it is written intentionally or is copied verbatim from the original, even if it appears to be a mistake

[Late 19th century. From Latin.]