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A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

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Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#241

Post by geocrasher »

ma2rten wrote: post #175
geocrasher wrote: post #67

My first job was at a Staples office supply store in a town known for its tourism and glitz and glamour. Several times in my 15 months at that store, a German tourist would be seen wandering around the store, clearly lost. More than once they asked, in broken English, "where is the Milk?" staple /ˈstāpəl/ plural noun: staples 1. a main or important element of something, especially of a diet. "bread, milk, and other s…

Was this a very long time ago? Staples is a well known chain of office supply stores in Germany as well.

It was almost 30 years ago... my how time flies.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#242

Post by throwaway0a5e »

nataz wrote: post #91
mikewarot wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I learned the hard way that Dulles is NOT in Washington DC, we took the bus out to the Air and Space Museum, which we assumed was in DC... the $75 dollar taxi ride that took 1 1/2 hours to show up to pick us up was no fun. Fun Bonus Fact: We drove to DC, so we could have just driven there, but thought a cheap Bus round trip was more fun as we could both see the sights, and not stress about traffic.

The more famous Smithsonian Air and Space museum is in D.C. right on the national mall, maybe 10 min from national airport (technicality in virginia, but right next to DC). You visited the udvar-hazy center which is out by Dulles airport in Chantilly. It is still part of the smithsonian, but more focused on displaying lots of different aircraft in a few large hangers. Very impressive and worth a visit, but not the ma…

The museum in DC hits all the famous stuff, Wright Flyer, Bell X1, etc.

The museum at Dulles features a lot of much larger aircraft and a lot of the more niche technical displays that they can't justify the space for in DC.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#244

Post by verelo »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #222
verelo wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because in the US, where the company was founded, the states have 2 letter abbreviations in common language. I wish people could use the ISO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:AU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:US

If you check the link you linked, you'll see that until 2004 the codes were indeed NS for NSW, VI for Vic, TS for Tas and QL for Qld. If you bought the standard for an arm and a leg in 2003, why would you buy the update for two arms and three legs in 2004? It's not like there's been any new states in Australia ever.

Interesting. I only first used these ISO labels around 2011, so the two letter versions for Australia never hit me. However, having grown up in NSW, i can attest that it’s never been a two letter abbreviation in common language. Likely the standard was mass produced and “corrected” for ambiguity later, that’s my guess anyway.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#245

Post by throwaway0a5e »

kristopolous wrote: post #184

Bangor Maine actually looks charming and delightful. 3 days there sounds wonderful. If I wrote musicals, this would make the shortlist.

If "charming and delightful" is your goal go to Portland. That's the tourist city that has all the tourism economy stuff to cater to tourists.

Bangor is basically a giant service plaza for everything that's further north and west than your typical Masshole with three kids and spouse piled into the Land Rover is willing to drive. There's some dive bars, college bars and museums. Don't get me wrong, it's a great place but it's neither the "high culture city" nor the "charming rural backwater" that most of HN is looking to visit.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#246

Post by Xcelerate »

ciabattabread wrote: post #240
Xcelerate wrote: post #80

On my first trip to New York City, I immediately turned my iPhone on upon landing (it was night outside) and had a very brief moment of panic that I had somehow boarded the wrong flight when the iPhone weather app said I was in "Jamaica".

And JFK is not even in the actual neighborhood of Jamaica. It’s just an artifact of how the postal codes were assigned - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Queens_neighborhoods#P...

SFO is also weird like that. It’s technically part of the city despite being physically separated from it. The first time I landed there I could see out the window as we were landing and I thought “this sure doesn’t like look San Francisco”.

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#247

Post by theandrewbailey »

mauvehaus wrote: post #108
technothrasher wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe they started that in the late 1960's. Not all of the plates have USA on them. The standard yellow plates do, but the alternate "centennial" plates don't. Also, some of the specialty plates do and some don't.

In a rather unfortunate coincidence, Ohio started issuing yellow plates with red text to people with too many DUI convictions a decade or so back. You don't often see plates from NM in OH, but when you do, it's a bit confusing.

One of my dad's friends called them "party plates", and that was over 20 years ago.

https://thenewswheel.com/a-bit-about-ohios-scarlet-letter-pl...

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#248

Post by zeckalpha »

kabes wrote: post #195
scirocco wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three years ago I booked a flight to San Juan (SJU), Puerto Rico by mistake. I was supposed to go to San Jose (SJO) in Costa Rica. I will never forget the moment I read "SJO" in the email realizing I should have booked a flight to "SJU". Then going into Google, and typing SJO to find out where I was actually flying. I was prepared for it to be in Asia, Africa or anywhere. Luckily, Puerto Rico was just a small detour…

I once booked san jose, costa rica instead of san jose, california. Discovered this already at the airport

SJC vs SJO

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#249

Post by lhoff »

tecleandor wrote: post #210
scirocco wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three years ago I booked a flight to San Juan (SJU), Puerto Rico by mistake. I was supposed to go to San Jose (SJO) in Costa Rica. I will never forget the moment I read "SJO" in the email realizing I should have booked a flight to "SJU". Then going into Google, and typing SJO to find out where I was actually flying. I was prepared for it to be in Asia, Africa or anywhere. Luckily, Puerto Rico was just a small detour…

Ha! I've got a friend who, on his very early 20s, wanted to stay for a while in Ireland to learn English while working (Madrid, Spain, here). He had a big farewell party, drank a bit too much, and missed his flight early in the morning, only to find that he had booked a flight to BERLIN instead of DUBLIN. He was so lucky to miss it, imagine that hangover-y arrival to Berlin imagining it's Ireland.

How does one mix up Berlin and Dublin? Because of Pronunciation?

Re: A lost tourist who thought Maine was San Francisco

#250

Post by ericmay »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #247
mauvehaus wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a rather unfortunate coincidence, Ohio started issuing yellow plates with red text to people with too many DUI convictions a decade or so back. You don't often see plates from NM in OH, but when you do, it's a bit confusing.

One of my dad's friends called them "party plates", and that was over 20 years ago. https://thenewswheel.com/a-bit-about-ohios-scarlet-letter-pl...

Was looking through the comments and saw this. Glad I'm not alone in remembering these. We called them "party tags" instead of "party plates", though. I wonder how many people remember that being a thing in Ohio.
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