A Sign Someone Else Should Be Naming Your Streets

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And Grant, we asked our listeners for funny street names that they know of, and boy, did they respond.

Oh, boy, howdy, did they.

Martha, you and I have a lot of trips to make.

A lot of selfies to take under street signs, clearly.

If you look at the map with all the pins in it, it looks like it needs an acne cream.

There are pimples all over the place.

There are a lot of destinations, and these are funny.

This is some funny stuff.

Yeah, I think our first stop should be Tallahassee.

Scott Higbee wrote from Tallahassee to say that there they have both a Frankie Lane and a Lois Lane.

Oh, that’s wonderful.

Bring your comics, listen to some music.

Yeah, apparently there are Lois Lanes in Huntsville, Alabama and Southfield, Michigan as well, and probably lots of other places.

Larry Johnson wrote, many years I lived in Batesville, Arkansas, where there was an intersection of Gwyn and Barrett.

Oh, yeah.

People always make that joke about my name.

Grant Barrett just automatically lends itself to Gwyn and Barrett.

And I do.

Gerald Gordon tells us there’s an either way in Boulder Creek, California.

Imagine giving the directions to the Monty Python skit just waiting to be delivered.

Well, and speaking of way, Mary Schaefer in Newark, Delaware, found that GOA, that’s G-O-A, is often used for road names, for little short roads.

And, in fact, in Lavalette, New Jersey, there is a GOA way.

Now, that’s what I want.

You know, where do you live?

GOA way.

Where’s your house?

Oh, those are really good.

Yeah, and I just can imagine the signs when they go up and somebody’s standing there smugly, hands on hips, just proudly looking at their sign and walking in the house and calling the bank saying, I need some new checks printed.

We’d still love to see the street names out your way that are just a little off kilter.

Send them to words@waywordradio.org or let us know on the telephone.

It’s toll free in the United States and Canada, 24 hours a day, 1-877-929-9673.

And we will accept them in any language.

Find lots of ways to reach us on our website at waywordradio.org.