Annerlee
asked
Sean Gibson:
Kalamazoo! What a cool sounding name. If you live somewhere like that, does it make you poetic or musical? Or do inhabitants just side-step the issue and call it 'Kal' or 'the Zoo'? If I want to find out more, does that make me a Kalamazoologist? Are you a Kalamazoolian? (I live in a small hamlet of one syllable.. I'm so jealous!)
Sean Gibson
Not since Glenn Miller and his Orchestra topped the charts in 1942 with (I’ve Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo has there been such interest in my hometown!
Thank you, Annerlee, for such Krazy Kwestions! (I promise—no more starting words with “K”…I just couldn’t resist.)
I’m afraid that the most interesting thing about Kalamazoo is its name, however—ostensibly derived from a Potawatomi word, its origins are shrouded in myth and legend…today, however, it’s primarily a place where people do a lot of typically Midwestern things like eat meat, work on cars, and root for underachieving local sports teams. Its residents tend to be more polite than poetic and more meaty than musical (not that polite poets and meaty musicians are not resident, mind you).
Diminutives abound, though I’ve always been fond of “Kali,” which makes the weather sound a lot nicer than it really is.
I think that, if you simply WANT to learn more about the fair city of my birth, that would make you Kalamacurious; only if you actually study the city would you truly be a Kalamazoologist.
Interestingly (or perhaps uninterestingly), I now live in the very, very boringly named Springfield, VA, whose most exotic feature is having about 417 Giant grocery stores (though I confess that I never tire of thinking, as I shop for food and an announcement comes over the loudspeaker encouraging me to see a Giant pharmacist for my prescription needs, that I’m rather frightened of the idea of giant pharmacists and would very much prefer to see a regular-sized one, or maybe even a tiny one…so I’ve got that going for me).
Thank you, Annerlee, for such Krazy Kwestions! (I promise—no more starting words with “K”…I just couldn’t resist.)
I’m afraid that the most interesting thing about Kalamazoo is its name, however—ostensibly derived from a Potawatomi word, its origins are shrouded in myth and legend…today, however, it’s primarily a place where people do a lot of typically Midwestern things like eat meat, work on cars, and root for underachieving local sports teams. Its residents tend to be more polite than poetic and more meaty than musical (not that polite poets and meaty musicians are not resident, mind you).
Diminutives abound, though I’ve always been fond of “Kali,” which makes the weather sound a lot nicer than it really is.
I think that, if you simply WANT to learn more about the fair city of my birth, that would make you Kalamacurious; only if you actually study the city would you truly be a Kalamazoologist.
Interestingly (or perhaps uninterestingly), I now live in the very, very boringly named Springfield, VA, whose most exotic feature is having about 417 Giant grocery stores (though I confess that I never tire of thinking, as I shop for food and an announcement comes over the loudspeaker encouraging me to see a Giant pharmacist for my prescription needs, that I’m rather frightened of the idea of giant pharmacists and would very much prefer to see a regular-sized one, or maybe even a tiny one…so I’ve got that going for me).
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