one to screw it in, and…
tommysorry it’s late…
Ok, time to wrap up the old joke. I asked for your responses to the age-old question: How many Floridians does it take to screw in a light bulb. Some of the answers were fantastic. Of course, we also got the obligatory “2 very small people” shtick. Two answers poked fun at the Hillsborough County Commissioners: “Unknown - too much red tape” and “… one to stop Ronda from keeping us in the dark ages.”
Two good ones that typify Florida: “we’ll need a recount,” and “Three. One to change the lightbulb, one to hold the lightbulb changer’s walker steady, and one to bitch about how kids have lightbulb changing so easy these days.” But my favorite was the first comment by Costa:
Two. One to do the screwing, and one to point out how much better they do it up North.
This week, I want to know of the Tampa Bay community with the most ridiculous name. Pick a neighborhood, subdivision, city, town, or street name.
Tags: names, tampa
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August 26th, 2005 at 9:03 am
Carrollwood: Woods? Who is Carroll?
Also; Dunedin, Oldsmar, and Odessa always struck me as odd names.
But my top choice: Lutz (no matter if you call it “lootz” or “luhtz”).
August 26th, 2005 at 9:39 am
The Meadow Pointe division has its share of streets and neighbourhoods that sound like either wine labels or Harry Potter house rejects: Deerbourne, Wrencrest, Baroncourt, Charlesworth, Thackery, & Firewheel being among them. (i’m one to complain; I live in Tullamore, but at least my street name is Black Water, so I can make Doobie Brothers references. Pity the kids down the road who live on Crimson & Clover Ct., as Tommy James & the Shondells are way less cool.)
However, my all-time favourite for pretentiousness and ridiculousness is the Charlevoix subdivision of Cheval.
August 26th, 2005 at 10:10 am
Nowatney - http://www.usacitiesonline.com/flcountyuniversity.htm
New Suburb Beautiful and Bayshore Beautiful. Where are the ugly ones?
August 26th, 2005 at 10:32 am
As a newcomer to the area, I’m not too comfortable calling anything ridiculous. However, I must inquire as to where the extra “S” comes from in Bearss?
August 26th, 2005 at 11:29 am
Tim, I disagree with your assessment of Tommy James & the Shondells. I have a quite high opinion of them, and happen to think they were 20 years ahead of their time (see: 80’s remakes of at least 3 tunes).
August 26th, 2005 at 11:29 am
It’s there so that the juvenile-minded among us can call it “Bear-Ass Avenue”. People like me!
August 26th, 2005 at 11:41 am
how about cockroach bay? who wouldn’t want some water front property there?
August 26th, 2005 at 11:42 am
How about Ybor City? Most people who don’t speak Spanish call it “Wy-bor” City… not knowing that in Spanish Y is pronounced as a long E sound.
In itself the name is not rediculous, but some of the pronunciations I’ve heard over the years have left me in tears of laughter.
August 26th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
Oldsmar, Lutz (to mirror comments above), Flori-braska avenue, Zephyrhills (it’s like the old bottled water commercials — “We’re not known for our Zephyrs or our hills…” )…
“East Lake Square Mall” is no where near East Lake (though East Lake isn’t an incorporated city in Pinellas County).
The Bradenton/Brandon thing has always bugged me (similar names, easy to mix up)… And how can’t you get tired of the Named-sometimes-numbered-othertimes references to roads (example: Pinellas county has severl State Roads that eitehr go by names or number sat any given time. State Road 60 or Gulf to Bay and tthe Courtney Campbell Causeway is an example, Tampa Road, Curlew Road and Main Street / St. Petersburg Drive going by Sr 584, 582 and 580 drive me nuts as well).
August 26th, 2005 at 1:58 pm
True, Tommy James & the Shondells were influential, and I guess “Crimson & Clover Ct.” is better than “Crystal Blue Persuasion Lake” (which is actually my pet name for Crystal Lake, a road I drive several times a week) or “Hanky Panky Boulevard.”
August 26th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
Id hate to live in Palmetto(those are the nastiest type of roaches), or near Cockroach Bay!!
August 26th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
Bearss is the name of some early pioneers
August 26th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Does anyone remember the south Tampa subdivision “Swastika”? Thankfully, I believe this has been changed in recent years. Also, I think “Port Tampa” and the port of Tampa being two different places is unnecessarily confusing. I think “Land O’ Lakes” sounds kind of stupid like “Bit O’ Honey” or “Sign O’ The Times”.
August 26th, 2005 at 11:17 pm
My favorite is in Manatee County “The Preserve at Panther Ridge” … the developer tears down acres of forest and wildlife habitat, slaps hundreds of pastel homes on it, and calls it a preserve.
August 26th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
Lutz Lake Fern Road
August 27th, 2005 at 8:18 am
I hate “Sand Key”. I remember Sand key. That ain’t no Sand Key any more. They should rename it “Flushing, New York”.
August 27th, 2005 at 3:13 pm
“New” Tampa. That would be as opposed to what, “Old” Tampa?
(And there really are hills in Z-Hills. Florida hills, but still…)
August 28th, 2005 at 11:06 am
I always see a billboard along 2-75 (btw Fowler and Fletcher) advertising a subdivision called “Saddle Creek”. It makes me laugh because Saddle Creek is also an indie label (Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, etc).
August 28th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
The town of Hernando, which is — inexplicably — located in Pasco County. I wouldn’t want to guess as to how many people get lost figuring that one out.
An honorable mention should go to out-of-area Yeehaw Junction, a little noplace in southeastern Osceola County. If you think that name is bad, consider the town’s original name: Jackass Crossing.
August 28th, 2005 at 9:17 pm
I found myself nodding in agreement over Justin’s comment (#14) because it’s so typical of Florida development. I’m a florida native and this whole issue just makes me shake my head.
Flori-braska Ave (did I even spell it right?) is the most ridiculous street name out there.
But I think the big winner goes to Pinellas County for the worst case of misinformation for street names in the county.
Tourists heading from out of town toward the beaches must be absolutely dizzy by the time they find their way to their hotel.
To wit: US 19 and Alt 19 are two diff’t highways, make sure you set your visitors straight.
Park Blvd and Park Street do meet at the same intersection, however, Park Street becomes Starkey Road on the north side of Park Blvd. Does Starkey eventually change names? My hub says it does further north.
Then there’s the ridiculous examples of Clearwater/Largo Road, Clearwater/Largo Road, Seminole/Missouri road… Ulmerton/Walsingham Road..
Does Belcher change names? I can’t remember. There are more road name changes here then I can think of at the moment. It can be a nightmare when you have out of town visitors!
I always tell them to look for the street number signs instead.
I grew up in Miami and this isnt a problem down there. Kendall Drive is Kendall Drive. Sunset Drive is Sunset Drive. no matter where you are in town.
Old Cutler is Old Cutler, from Perrine all the way into Coconut Grove.
Pinellas County needs to wise up and have it’s cities and municipalities agree on one single name for each of it’s roads.
ok, im stepping down from the podium here, I think i’ve exceeded my two minute warning!
August 29th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
You’re onto something with the morphing street names Laura… I mean you cited Alt 19 early on in the comment. Alt 19 is also known as Fort Harrison in downtown Clearwater and a bunch of other names in Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor and Dunedin… Just not Alt 19 (though they are talking about picking one name and sticking with it).
How about — citing something I brought up earlier with SR 580-584 ) the fact Curlew and Tampa Roads (and St. Petersburg Drive / Main Street) merge in Oldsmar and become Hillsborough Avenue (SR 580)? Just the “Tampa Road, Hillsborough Avenue” crap gets confusing. Having people tell you the number road to take makes it worse because you’re not sure which turnoff to take.
Belcher road remains Belcher road throughout Pinellas but Keene road and Starkey do a name change… You already cited Starkey and Keene is County Road 1 (god, I hate those number names!).
Here’s one from my local subdivision: Lake St. George Drive goes north into Highland Lakes and merges with Highland Lakes Boulevard… The Boulevard drives through the Highland Lakes retirement community and a few more before it abruptly changes to Alderman Road.
Going back to the bad names — How about the sub divisions that say they are Lake something and the “Lake” in question isn’t much more than a pond?
Anyone remember Clearwater trying to rename Clearwater Beach “Clearwater’s Beach” in an attempt to show that they are part of the same city?
The Gunn Highway just sounds too redneck to me…
August 29th, 2005 at 10:21 pm
Erhlich Road heads east from Gunn Highway and then turns right and heads south ,just past Dale Mabry?!!!!
Who names a street Boulevard? North Boulevard becomes South Boulevard at Kennedy. Then to make matters worse there is a North Street that runs east west off of Florida. An East Street that runs north and south of Kennedy near Jefferson St., and a West Street that runs West of Ola. There is a South Street someplace
September 15th, 2005 at 3:08 pm
[...] [...]
February 12th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
[...] laid back and (some would say) s.l.o.w. I beg you not to come down here just to complain that they do things so much better up North. We really don’t care much for that sort of [...]
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I just discovered this site and its now 2008 I was born here 77 years ago and I could answer most of the questions asked but won’t bother. All my life I have been hearing snow birds complain and say how better it is up north. I am not uneducated but really I was 10 years old before I knew that Damn and Yankee were two different words. There is only one thing worse than a snow bird; one with a broken wing.