Oh those dumb Americans.

A bit like now, I classify anything beyond Watford as "the north."

 

We laugh when people from Bristol say they live in the southwest. Hah! That's practically the Midlands!

LOL!

A bit like now, I classify anything beyond Watford as "the north."

We laugh when people from Bristol say they live in the southwest. Hah! That's practically the Midlands!

Well...when I was in London or South of most of the country and if someone was talking about an area of the UK I wasn't familiar with I could get by with saying (and be right 86% of the time) "Um, yeah that's somewhere North, right?"  

Psh, you're all just soft southern jessies! Of course, to phatbeetle and noirem, so am I, and to orkneytime and bound4orkney, so are they!

Well...when I was in London or South of most of the country and if someone was talking about an area of the UK I wasn't familiar with I could get by with saying (and be right 86% of the time) "Um, yeah that's somewhere North, right?"  

Everywhere that's not Land's End is considered 'up country' to us. 

I don't think we help American friends with European geography when they say they are thinking of talking a trip to Europe and we say we might meant up! Going over to west coast of Ireland in a few weeks to meet up with an old colleague of DW who is staying for 2 weeks with her husband. They've rented a 6 berth cottage on the beach and there's only the 2 of them so said why don't we stay. Just booked Ryanair flights to Knock for £100 return and we'll spend 4 nights there.

Same with another friend talking about visiting Italy, we said we'd book a short break and meet up!

I don't really know where Tallahassee is, to be fair. Also, how is Cairo pronounced? Heh.

You know if you never make it to Tallahassee you will not have missed much.

I always thought 'Tallahassee' sounds sort of rudely illicit in a backwoods kind of way. Like if you were drunk and nekkid and jumping off a pier or something you could yell out "TALLAHASSEE!!" in mid air right before you hit the water and it would sort of sound naughty.

You know if you never make it to Tallahassee you will not have missed much.

I always thought 'Tallahassee' sounds sort of rudely illicit in a backwoods kind of way. Like if you were drunk and nekkid and jumping off a pier or something you could yell out "TALLAHASSEE!!" in mid air right before you hit the water and it would sort of sound naughty.

I always confuse Tallahassee with Tuscaloosa.  Don't know why, other than they are both in the south, both start with "T", both have a lot of vowels and both end with a vowel. Guess that's reason enough.

PlainPearl, those maps are hilarious    I confess I always think of western Mass. as really New Yawk (they talk funny out there!) 

In Georgia, Cairo is pronounced "kay-row". That's only Kay-row, GA though. The one in Egypt is pronounced the other way

In Georgia, Cairo is pronounced "kay-row". That's only Kay-row, GA though. The one in Egypt is pronounced the other way

I am fascinated by this. At some point they must have been sitting around and decided to name the place. Now why would they pick Cairo? Someone must have had an atlas and they threw a dart at it or something because there seems no logical connection. If there was some sort of connection, like maybe an Egyptian family in the area or something, then they would have known the proper pronunciation.

   

Hahaha, that makes me think of a little town I grew up near named Califon. Officially, it was supposed to be named California, but they say in order to fit on the welcome sign they needed it to be shortened to Califon. Unofficially, they say the guy who was painting the sign was drunk, left out the R by mistake, and just decided to leave it.  

Did a bit of looking on Wikipedia to see if I could see why Cairo, GA is called Cairo, but it doesn't say. It does say that the great Jackie Robinson was born there, though, so it was worth the look

My geograpy lessons were all about rivers, mountains, earthquakes and population, but I only did it up to year 9. I vagely can picture places in America, although it needs to be on a NESW basic mostly!

@RAR me too, but it's generally stuff above London as well!

@chary I consider myself to be in West Country, but only just,* so for you I'm probably south east!

*as in go out of town, you see the back of the dorset sign -> no-mans land -> "Welcome to Hants"!

I am fascinated by this. At some point they must have been sitting around and decided to name the place. Now why would they pick Cairo? Someone must have had an atlas and they threw a dart at it or something because there seems no logical connection. If there was some sort of connection, like maybe an Egyptian family in the area or something, then they would have known the proper pronunciation.

   

I'm not sure why Cairo, GA or Cairo, MO, but Cairo, Illinois is pretty easy to figure out if you look at a map.  It's located in a major river delta, just like the original.