Saturday UPDATE:
I’ve been overwhelmed with email messages with your neighborhood un-p.c. nicknames, but also have lots of work to do. Will put up new ones asap. Thanks!
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Ghost of a Flea says only I can do this story justice, but I can’t think of a thing to add:
A lesbian Asian bus driver was fired by Brisbane City Council after she wrote a note referring to commuters as “spear chuckers with prams” .
But Lillian Tam – who said she has fought discrimination all her life – said the note was not meant to be malicious or racist.
She claimed the phrase was used by bus drivers to describe the 110 bus route after a group of Sudanese, Tongan, Samoan and Caucasian passengers wearing face masks and carrying spears were picked up one day.
PS: an old friend of mine used to call Bathurst Street “the Gaza Strip” which still cracks me up.
Tell me the politically incorrect names you have for your neighborhoods: kathyshaidle – AT – gmail.com
UPDATE: we’ve got one “Singhdale” and two for “Bramladesh”
Here’s a longer message:
Kitchener-Waterloo [me: formerly “Berlin, Ontario” — before the war] has a large population of people of German extraction. After the war many war weary Germans moved there because of the German culture to these Ontario communities. These people did well here and they all went an bought cottages in the same area (Honey Harbour)which because of the high rate of German cottagers from K-W area became known as “block head bay”
…true story…ask a Kitchenerite.
PLUS:
Wow! “The Gaza Strip”… that takes me back. My Dad used to use that phrase for Bathurst St. & environs.
I used to work with someone that called Woodbridge “Wap-bridge” because of the large Italian community there.
At one point, the Bayview Village Mall, here in Willowdale, used to be called “Bay-Jew Village” by us very clever youngsters.
And I dare say you’ll receive plenty of references to “Asian-court”, rather than Agincourt.
That one made me laugh out loud!
MORE from the inbox:
Surrey, a bedroom community of Vancouver is often referred to as Curry by less than enlightened locals.
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The following are all in London Ontario
Any area of subsidised housing – No Daddy Lane
Area with subsidised housing – The Blue Bronx. You guessed it, all the row houses are blue.
Area where Doctors live – Pill Hill
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Downtown Baghdad – St. Laurent Mall, Ottawa
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* Asiancourt (for the Scarborough Ont. neighborhood of Agincourt)
* Scarberia (for Scarborough)
* Vankonger / Hongcouver (for Vancouver)
* Edmonchuk (for Edmonton’s Ukrainians)
* Deadmonton (for obvious reasons)
* Zimbabwe (for the public housing projects at Jane & Finch)
Keep up the great work and fun writing!
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How about Scarlem for good old Scarborough?
For those not familiar with the much-maligned Scarborough, Ontario, Wayne’s World was set in that suburb, as it was during Mike Myer’s youth, way back when “‘Frampton Comes Alive’ was government issue…” (The “Stan Mikitas’ Donuts” were, of course, Tim Horton’s…)
When you watch the local Toronto news, every bad thing has some Scarborough connection. “Sirhan Sirhan stopped off in Scarborough on his way to L.A.” wouldn’t surprise anyone.
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I live in Ottawa, or as I call it, “Khartoum on the Rideau”.
