Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Street Smart

I've driven across this country several times, and found, to no surprise, many cities use the same street names. Numbers are popular, of course, and, to a lesser extent, letters. Plenty of cities have a Main or Broadway. Trees are big. So are Presidents. Other people's names show up a lot, especially Martin Luther King.

But certain addresses are more particular, so I thought I'd try a quiz. Here are well known street names, taken from well known towns. I'll list three, you tell me the city. I admit this is the kind of quiz where if you don't know the answer right away, it'll be hard to figure out.

No tricks, though I did remove any reference to "street," "road," "avenue," "boulevard," "way," "place," etc. If the quiz seems too easy, take the streets one at a time until you figure it out.

I'll list the answers later this week.

1. Halsted, Rush, Wacker

2. Crenshaw, Figueroa, Mulholland

3. Benning, Independence, K

4. Market, Sansom, South

5. Ashbury, Kearny, Lombard

6. Eight Mile, Gratiot, Woodward

7. Canal, Delancey, Fulton

8. Crescent, Saint Catherine, Sherbrooke

9. Chouteau, Lindbergh, Tucker

10. Beacon, Boylston, Newbury

11. Decatur, Peachtree, Ponce De Leon

12. Biscayne, Brickell, Flagler

13. Babgy, Fannin, San Jacinto

14. Alaskan, Denny, Pike

15. Bay, De Grassi, Yonge

16. Basin, Desire, Metairie

17. Bruce Randolph, Colfax, Montview

18. Buckeye, Camelback, Indian School

19. Beale, Danny Thomas, Union

20. Queen, Xerxes, Zenith

Update: Here are the answers.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

SPOILER ALERT: Don't look below if you don't want to know our attempts to answer the quiz. This is the combined effort of two reasonably well-traveled adults, living in the same house, unassisted by Google or any similar crutch:

1. Chicago
2. L.A.
3. Washington, DC
4. Philadelphia
5. San Francisco
6. Detroit (?)
7. New York
8. ?
9. St. Louis (?)
10. Boston
11. Atlanta
12. ?
13. Houston (?)
14. Seattle
15. ?
16. New Orleans
17. ?
18. Phoenix (?)
19. Memphis
20. Minneapolis

8:52 PM, July 16, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

#6 above is correct (mind the spoiler alert), as anyone who follows the film career of Eminem knows.

8:57 PM, July 16, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So where's Atlantic City?

10:45 PM, July 16, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a hint for people. These aren't all American cities.

9:36 PM, July 17, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will totally fail, but whatever.

2. Los Angeles.
5. San Francisco.
10. Boston?
14. Seattle.
16. New Orleans?

I guess I only know areas that I have lived in. The only streets I can think of in New York are the ultra-famous ones, and the only street I know in Chicago is L.S.D. because that's where the Weathermen went on their rampage.

9:39 PM, July 17, 2007  
Blogger New England Guy said...

I think 15 is Toronto. And according to the last words ever spoken to me by a pretty girl passing by when I was there more than 15 years ago- Yonge does not rhyme with "allonge" (it rhymes with "hung")

3:07 PM, July 18, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's a cute story -- but it would be better if "allonge" was a word I had ever heard of -- How do you even pronounce it? (So I can avoid it next time I want to say "Yonge" or "hung.")

10:23 PM, July 19, 2007  
Blogger New England Guy said...

"Uh-lawn-j" is the best I can do. It was the only English word (its a legal term referring to something affixed to an instrument or promissory note so that it becomes part of the original) I could think of that used that sound- The surname "St. Onge" or the French pronunciation of "orange" or the verb "manger" (to eat) were the only others I came up with

8:01 AM, July 20, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about this -- it doesn't rhyme with the first syllable of "ingenue?"

3:23 PM, July 20, 2007  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No good--a lot of people pronounce "ingenue" the French way--"enzhenoo."

5:03 PM, July 20, 2007  

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