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When language quirks become memes, they take on a kind of mind-virus contagiousness. Just a year or so ago, using the apopocation "Cali" when visiting the Golden State would earn you the same kind of head shakes and rolling eyes as saying "Frisco" for San Francisco. It was something that hoisted your Dork Flag high above your head and announced to those around you, "I'm not from around here!"
Seems that there is now a generational divide within the state regarding acceptability. "Cali" has quickly become a pervasive nickname among under-thirty Californians. Cali is, of course, the name of a major city in Colombia with millions of inhabitants, not a state on the West Coast of the U.S. What's a level-headed language maven to do? Stand firm and repel this ignominious diminutive? Let the virus run its course?
How many of you use the term "Cali" for California (either in writing or speaking)? How many of you find the term insufferable? Where do you live and how old are you?
I, a "Cali" resident, know nobody who uses that abbreviation. I have, however, heard people say "SoCal" for where we live, but I personally refuse to adopt that, and I believe any rational person should do likewise. (I'm also confused about where "SoCal" begins; certainly San Diego and L.A. — where I live (Santa Clarita, actually, but basically the same thing, hour-plus commute notwithstanding) — are included, but where does it extend northerly? Ventura? Oxnard? Ojai? Santa Barbara? California's a damned big state — a huge chunk of it exists north of San Francisco, even though most people don't realize Northern California is that vast.)
I've heard it, and let it pass when someone uses it, but I don't use it myself. As for the dividing line between Northern and Southern California, I think back to the maps the gas stations used to give away free to customers. California was divided in half because, being a long skinny state, it wouldn't have made sense to put the whole thing on one side of the sheet. I decided the dividing line was the point that was as far from the bottom of the "Northern" side as it was from the top of the "Southern", which turned out to be right around Fresno.
tunawrites said:
— where I live (Santa Clarita, actually, but basically the same thing, hour-plus commute notwithstanding) —
Public Radio is a very small place indeed! I lived the first ten years of my life in Newhall before it became a mere neighborhood of Santa Clarita. We moved away about the time they broke ground for Magic Mountain.
I live in the Northeast. I will keep my daunting age to myself.
The only place I ever heard Cali for California is at the restaurant chain Houlihan's. They have California Mashers on the menu, and they refer to them as Cali Mashers. Since the dish includes cauliflower, I was confused when I heard it, thinking they might be saying Cauli Mashers in a strange way.
I would not use that abbreviation in any form.
Ron Draney said:
. . . I decided the dividing line was the point that was as far from the bottom of the "Northern" side as it was from the top of the "Southern", which turned out to be right around Fresno.
Dude, Fresno is way Northern. I graduated high school in Santa Maria (back when Nixon was President, and we were all worried about the draft, y'know), and we called it Central California, though it got no respect from the popular press until Michael Jackson was tried there (twice). San Luis Obispo is the Northernmost extent of Central California, as far as I'm concerned. Fresno is some god-awful farm town in the central valley.
Or am I mistaken? I've never been to Fresno; I've only heard of it.
Um, "Cali"? No! Ugh! Sounds like those other states, Massachu, Michig, Io, Nebr... If inside the state, then Dork Flag = yes. Or, just not an a Californian. (As the Mainers say, "from away".)
(Sorry, I'm, well, over 30. But I hear no surfer dudes calling the state that, as I drop off my son to Surf Team practice in the morning.)
SoCal -- yeah, dude! I believe that epithet is only eschewed by UCLA fans, due to the resemblance to the name of some other school. I think we still have some UCLA fans around here, somewhere.
(Does anyone say NorCal?) (NoCal is called Nevada. 🙂
Interestingly -- Northern and Southern California only exist along the coast. The central valley, Sierras, and eastern deserts are their own districts, not divided along northern and southern lines -- so Fresno can't be the division.
I always thought of Central California as from about Santa Barbara up to Monterey or Santa Cruz, and Northern California thereafter. Sacramento is clearly in Northern California, but Stockton/Modesto is probably the end of the Central Valley, not part of Northern California.
And Northern California clearly includes Marin County, maybe Mendicino, but somewhere up in the wet, forested, upper 10 counties, it kind of fades into Oregon. (Or fades into Idaho, in Modoc County.)
Don't know if Yreka is in Northern California or not, as it's the proposed capital of the state of Jefferson.
(Yreka is a famous palindrome town, attributed to Mark Twain to a reversal of Bakery without the B. Yreka Bakery operated for many years under many businesses and owners. "Spell Yreka Bakery backwards and you will know where to get a good loaf of bread", 1863. Today, there's a Yrella Gallery...)
I asked my buddy, a slightly more-native Californian than me* (born in Riverside). He said Northern California starts where the liberals are (of which he is one, though displaced down in SoCal) -- Laguna Seca Raceway, Santa Cruz. And he confirmed that the Central Valley, Sierras, and eastern deserts are not North/South. Total of 6 areas: Northern/Central/Southern/Central Valley/Sierras/Deserts. His friends in Eureka clearly still think of themselves as Northern Californians.
(* What is a California native? In the rural or longstanding parts, born there, and darn proud of it. In the HOA communities, moved west before their neighbors...) (HOA = with a homeowners' association)
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