Sheboygan, WI!

rass · Post by **rass** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:33 am

I'm not sure how Sheboygan, WI became a stand-in for anywhere anytime you need a city name but also need to be anything but specific. Even auto-correct disrespects Sheboygan ("shebang"???)

Nestled on the Western shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Sheboygan River (it puts the "super" and the "fun" in "Superfund Site"), Sheboygan is more than a punchline. It's the self-declared "brat capital of the world". It's four syllables, not just three. Don't believe me? Take it from one of Sheboygan's most famous native sons:

Rick Majerus wrote:...

OK. That wasn't cool. Sorry.

So what is your experience with Sheboygan?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:43 am

I also considered:

Dubuque
Rancho Cucamonga
Walla Walla
East Overshoe (h/t all grampas)

rass · Post by **rass** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:50 am

Shit. I had a Walla Walla joke in my first draft, but chopped it.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:50 am

There's people who haven't been there? I want to hear THEIR story first.

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:52 am

I will be there in August. First time!

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:58 am

Kohler's completely fascinating, in a Truman Show kind of way.

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:11 am

Favorite random Midwestern cities to use as stand-ins, ranked below. Note: I have not been to any of them.

1. Sault St. Marie
2. Battle Creek
3. Bowling Green
4. Youngstown
5. Decatur
6. Joliet
7. Oshkosh
8. Fond du Lac
9. Kenosha
10. Eau Claire

Also, not Midwest, but I really like saying "King of Prussia, Pennsylvania."

e: misspelled Eau Claire.

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:23 am

I just use Bumfuck

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:33 am

Flin Flon!

I almost started a thread about Flin Flon a couple of months ago. And if I ever held out any hope of following thru with it, you've squashed them. The Swamp just isn't big enough to carry separate threads for Sheboygan and Flin Flon. You win this one, rass.

Anyway, I read a great, great article buy Guy Lawson in Harper's many years ago about Flin Flon's obsession with its junior hockey team. The second paragraph of the article always stuck with me.

Described by Canada: The Rough Guide as an “ugly blotch on a barren rocky landscape,” Flin Flon, population 7,500, straddles the border between Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 90 miles north of its nearest neighbor, The Pas, 500 miles up from Winnipeg, and a thirteen-hour drive due north of Minot, North Dakota. In this part of the world, Flin Flon is literally the end of the line: the two-lane highway that connects it to the rest of North America circles the perimeter of town and then, as if shocked to its senses, rejoins itself and hightails it back south.

When Google Maps/Google Earth became a thing years later, I looked it up, and sure enough, there was the reconnecting highway.

Flash forward to February, when MaxWebster sent me an email and made a passing reference to a hockey player from the 1970s I was only vaguely aware of. (Yes, MaxWebster emails are exactly as you imagine them to be.) I looked the guy up, saw that he had played for the Flin Flon Bombers, then looked up Flin Flon on Google Maps again. And the reconnecting highway wasn't there! There are highways reaching farther north now. Has urban sprawl infected Flin Flon? I felt like a little piece of myself had been taken away.

Steve of phpBB · Post by **Steve of phpBB** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:42 am

I have to win this one - I've been to Sheboygan dozens of times.

Decades ago, my family had a restaurant in a summer vacation community in Door County, Wisconsin. So we commuted back and forth from the Chicago suburbs. Sheboygan was one of our regular stops.

It was nice and all, but it was no Manitowoc.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:44 am

As far as placeholders/punchlines go, pretty much any town that has a team in the Western Hockey League works for me. When I was a kid, I was a hockey fan, but I didn't know anything about juniors. I would only see those teams listed in game-day programs. There was something dreamy and exotic about those names: Kamloops, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Red Deer, Saskatoon, Regina, etc.

Post by **brian** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:44 am

It's no Cheboygan (MI). But what is?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:12 am

bapo! wrote:As far as placeholders/punchlines go, pretty much any town that has a team in the Western Hockey League works for me. When I was a kid, I was a hockey fan, but I didn't know anything about juniors. I would only see those teams listed in game-day programs. There was something dreamy and exotic about those names: Kamloops, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Red Deer, Saskatoon, Regina, etc.

I can't remember the guy's name, or how famous he is outside of New England, but there was a guy who did a lot of color commentary for college hockey around here and for some NCAA tourney stuff on ESPN. I think he also called the mite/squirt shootouts during intermission of some old Bruins games on WSBK. Anyway, the guy could not go 5 seconds without saying where someone played juniors.

"Great puck movement from McDougle there, from the Kamloops Blazers"

Every. time. Anyway #2, my far-and-away favorite was when anyone played for the Chilliwack Chiefs. Symphonic.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:15 am

Found him

Bob Norton

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:21 am

Ryan wrote:
bapo! wrote:As far as placeholders/punchlines go, pretty much any town that has a team in the Western Hockey League works for me. When I was a kid, I was a hockey fan, but I didn't know anything about juniors. I would only see those teams listed in game-day programs. There was something dreamy and exotic about those names: Kamloops, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Red Deer, Saskatoon, Regina, etc.
I can't remember the guy's name, or how famous he is outside of New England, but there was a guy who did a lot of color commentary for college hockey around here and for some NCAA tourney stuff on ESPN. I think he also called the mite/squirt shootouts during intermission of some old Bruins games on WSBK. Anyway, the guy could not go 5 seconds without saying where someone played juniors.

"Great puck movement from McDougle there, from the Kamloops Blazers"

Every. time.

Pierre McGuire does this a lot. Other people get annoyed when he mentions that so-and-so played for the Kitchener Rangers. But I'm all, 'I know! I saw him play on a cold snowy night in Erie in 2009!'

(I also have a higher tolerance for the talking heads that everybody else finds insufferable. Viva Joe Buck!)

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:22 am

AB_skin_test wrote:I just use Bumfuck

ditto

rass · Post by **rass** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:25 am

Typical that Tarzana, CA gets a mention in Flin Flon's Wikipedia entry and that the mention isn't reciprocated in Tarzana's.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:31 am

Another city I occasionally use as a placeholder is Peoria.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:37 am

Johnny Carwash wrote:I really like saying "King of Prussia, Pennsylvania."

Several Swamps ago, I posted a photo of myself standing/basking in front of the Thomas Kincaid store in the King of Prussia mall.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:45 am

been to Sheboygan and King of Prussia on work trips. Also to Bumfuck.

BSF21 · Post by **BSF21** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:56 am

bapo! wrote:Flin Flon!

I almost started a thread about Flin Flon a couple of months ago. And if I ever held out any hope of following thru with it, you've squashed them. The Swamp just isn't big enough to carry separate threads for Sheboygan and Flin Flon. You win this one, rass.

Anyway, I read a great, great article buy Guy Lawson in Harper's many years ago about Flin Flon's obsession with its junior hockey team. The second paragraph of the article always stuck with me.

Described by Canada: The Rough Guide as an “ugly blotch on a barren rocky landscape,” Flin Flon, population 7,500, straddles the border between Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 90 miles north of its nearest neighbor, The Pas, 500 miles up from Winnipeg, and a thirteen-hour drive due north of Minot, North Dakota. In this part of the world, Flin Flon is literally the end of the line: the two-lane highway that connects it to the rest of North America circles the perimeter of town and then, as if shocked to its senses, rejoins itself and hightails it back south.
When Google Maps/Google Earth became a thing years later, I looked it up, and sure enough, there was the reconnecting highway.

Flash forward to February, when MaxWebster sent me an email and made a passing reference to a hockey player from the 1970s I was only vaguely aware of. (Yes, MaxWebster emails are exactly as you imagine them to be.) I looked the guy up, saw that he had played for the Flin Flon Bombers, then looked up Flin Flon on Google Maps again. And the reconnecting highway wasn't there! There are highways reaching farther north now. Has urban sprawl infected Flin Flon? I felt like a little piece of myself had been taken away.

I flew into Flin Flon on an outpost fishing trip about 10 years ago. We took a Piper plane up from Winnipeg and I was hungover as balls. Vomitted as soon as we hit the runway in Flin Flon. So after that we hop in a van and drive 20 minutes to...

Get on a Norseman

...with some Canadian hilljack pilot. All taxied out to the edge of the lake with all our equipment loaded, the hilljack cranks up the engine and uses a hand crank to adjust the flaps. We start out, and 18yo BSF is thrilled because this is his first time on a float plane, a mix of 90% excitement and 10% sheer terror as my life is now in Canadian Tuxedo Hillsjack Man's hands. The hilljack then kills the engine after about 5 seconds. WTF right? After the noise dials down he shouts back at us on the bench seating in the back...

"Shit guys, forgot to put gas in the plane. That could have been bad."

...and we taxi back to the dock.

bapo! · Post by **bapo!** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:07 am

Great story, BSF, made even better by the use of the word 'hilljack.' I didn't think that I would ever meet (or Internet-meet) anybody who had been to Flin Flon. This almost feels like a brush with fame.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:19 am

brian wrote:It's no Cheboygan (MI). But what is?

That was bugging me, I thought I remembered there being a MI iteration.

Nonlinear FC · Post by **Nonlinear FC** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:20 am

Rex wrote:been to Sheboygan and King of Prussia on work trips. Also to Bumfuck.

I was in King of Prussia on TH/FRI, taking the boy on college visits. That mall isn't a mall, it's a collection of malls.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:21 am

My brother gave me this cap for Christmas a few years ago. I need to start wearing it again...

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 12:43 pm

AB_skin_test wrote:I just use Bumfuck

It's East Bumblefuck. No state included, but I've always pictured it being in PA. Peduca is good one.

Post by **Shirley** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 1:40 pm

I gotta think Peoria is the national leader, with the expression "will it play in Peoria?"

Personally, I use Buttfuck, Nowhere, or something similar to that. I guess I'm classy that way.

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:23 pm

rass wrote:Shit. I had a Walla Walla joke in my first draft, but chopped it.

boooo

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:29 pm

My go to is East Armpit NJ thanks to a teacher I had in middle school.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:02 am

Now, I'm stuck in a Wikipedia wormhole (and I want to read The Sunless City.) Thanks guys!

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:31 am

I have been to Intercourse, Pennsylvania, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and have been within a couple of miles of Dildo, Newfoundland.

I have also been to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan but fortunately this was back in the 70s when the name didn't have two meanings.

rass · Post by **rass** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:45 am

Pruitt wrote:I have also been to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan but fortunately this was back in the 70s when the name didn't have two meanings.

Hey you trendy Canadians! How about a little warning for your sheltered (yet curious) mid-Atlantic buddies the next time you lay out a trap like that?

A_B · Post by **A_B** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:16 am

Surely to god you didn't search that....

rass · Post by **rass** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:25 am

AB_skin_test wrote:Surely to god you didn't search that....

Yeah. Luckily I started with "dildo" and was more than ready for the "prince albert" when it popped up.

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:10 am

Poughkeepsie is the go-to on NYC based sitcoms for "I traveled out of NYC but not too far away".

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:08 am

rass wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:Surely to god you didn't search that....
Yeah. Luckily I started with "dildo" and was more than ready for the "prince albert" when it popped up.

I almost vomited when someone told me about the double meaning. And I would NEVER have searched it.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:12 am

rass wrote:
AB_skin_test wrote:Surely to god you didn't search that....
Yeah. Luckily I started with "dildo" and was more than ready for the "prince albert" when it popped up.

I thought that was a commonly known term. It seemed to be in vogue when I was in HS and college. No idea what would lead someone to do that.

Post by **brian** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:43 am

Pruitt wrote:I have been to Intercourse, Pennsylvania, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and have been within a couple of miles of Dildo, Newfoundland.

I have also been to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan but fortunately this was back in the 70s when the name didn't have two meanings.

I went to high school about 10 miles from Climax, MI.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:55 am

When I was 9 years old, one of the baseball teams in my league was sponsored by Climax Uranium. Yep, that's my hometown.

ETA: interesting link

travzilla · Post by **travzilla** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:58 am

I know I've been to Flin Flon, but I think I was 3 or 4, so don't remember anything other than playing hot wheels on that mat with streets on it. Also you can't drive to Flin Flon without going through The Pas. I'm a sucker for places with "The" as part of their name.

We have family in Indian Head, SK, so I've been there many times.

My go-to anytown is usually one put on the map for building a monorail:

Which option best describes your relationship with Sheboygan?