One of the categories in our 2013 Best of Thunder Bay Readers’ Survey was best Thunder Bay-ism. We wanted to know what sayings or things – that are unique to our city – our readers find endearing. The list of responses was long and varied with persians coming out on top. “Good to go,” was mentioned by a few readers causing us to wonder if TBayers coined this term. And one of these days we will get to the bottom of our unique use of the term shag!
1. Persian
To outsiders, the enigmatically named persian can be a bit of a mystery. What is it? How do you eat it? And what does it have to do with the Iranian ethnic group native to Western and Central Asia? The answer to the last question is, of course, nothing at all: local lore has it that persians were actually named after an American World War I Army general, John “Blackjack” Pershing, although the reasons for this remain unclear. Perhaps the general was fond of strawberry-flavoured icing. Or is it raspberry? The mystery continues.
2. Shag
3. Camp
Honourable Mentions:
Safeways
Muddin’
Pack Sack
Yous Guys
Right Awesome
Right Deadly
Nipigon Nylons
Snow Machine
Sleepy G
Get ‘er Done!
Bon Bons
Is that in Port Arthur or Fort William?
The smelt are running!
I have to drive all the way to the other side of town?
Thanks to Amy Jones for the persian write-up and for compiling the honourable mentions.
