Newspaper Nicknames

Martha, we were talking earlier about nicknames. There is a whole other category of nicknames that we haven’t brought up yet, and that’s nicknames for the hometown newspaper.

Oh, yeah.

Most places have a love-hate relationship with their major metropolitan daily, don’t they?

Absolutely.

They read it, they love it, but they also hate it because it kind of, I don’t know, they know its weaknesses and its intricacies.

Right.

And you’re from Louisville. What’s the one in Louisville called?

Well, yes. For years I worked for the Louisville Courier-Journal, but in-house and sometimes when we call people on the phone to interview them and they weren’t happy about that, they would refer to us as the curious urinal.

Curious urinal.

Yeah.

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I grew up around St. Louis. I was born in St. Louis, and the post-dispatch is often called the St. Louis Post Distress or the St. Louis Post Distort.

But, you know, just yesterday, and I swear this happened, I was in the barbershop here in Brooklyn.

And it’s one of those classy old joints with the marble counters and the steamed towels that they’ll wrap around your neck.

Yeah.

And they were talking about the New York Slimes as a name for the New York Times.

And they used it without kind of comment.

That’s their way of referring to the paper because they didn’t care for it.

Yeah, but I bet they read it every day.

Well, we’d like to hear your favorite newspaper nicknames, nice or not.

Give us an email, words@waywordradio.org.

Or call me in Gertie anytime.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

Hello.

Don’t make me come over there.