Game: Name a fun fact about where you're from and others will try to guess where that is

alyth@lemmy.world to [Outdated, please look at pinned post] Casual Conversation@lemmy.world – 79 points –
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Every easter, we go from door to door and beat girl's backs with a whip made of braided rods. They give us sweets and alcohol for exchange.

It's probably one of the best countries to live in but also comes with a big tradeoff in the form of a bad climate. People keep to themselves and avoid interacting with strangers. We're also known for being quiet, humble and honest.

There's a word coined in this town's specific dialect that means "catty corner, kitty corner, or diagonal".

Hint: the first two syllables of that word are "anti", though the "t" is not a full fricative stop.

The only possible word that comes to mind is “anticlockwise” used in (some parts of?) the UK instead of “counterclockwise”… but that doesn’t exactly match “diagonally”. Is it the word though?

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We have two animals on our coat of arms neither of which can walk backwards.

Australia. I feel I've seen a kangaroo shuffle backwards in a fighting stance. But hearing an emu can't walk backwards sounds ludicrous.

I've been told that this way they have no choice but to hold up the coat of arms.

we've been the cause of two world wars

We have a 1/2 scale copy of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Las Vegas? Seems like they have a half scale version of everything.

Nope, but its true, Vegas does seem to have every monument you can think of.

I don’t know the scale, but Saugus, Massachusetts - “Leaning Tower of Pizza”

I can go regular skiing on snow and water skiing on the ocean in the same day.

We have a small desert with cactii in a region that has snow 6 months, extreme cold for 2 months of the year.

A bit vague but there's a handful of areas that more or less meet that description around Canada.

Small children are taught to be afraid of the devil, but not THE Devil (in the US).

One of our sports teams shocked the world in 2016 by doing the impossible.

The team in question wasn't the Tigers.

NBA Warriors 73 wins?

If so, which locale would you claim them for? Oakland, SF where they play now, or just California in general?

(if not, I have no other guesses)

We don't call them steamed hams.

I’ve got a few but I’ll go with:

The Guinness World Record Largest Open Sandwich; It was a barbecue pork bun (as of July 2010; dunno if the record still stands)

Ok. In retrospect this was way too obscure.

How about the town Pepsi was invented in?

I'm from an area where we have a specific night of the year called "Devil's night". Easily googlable, but it's interesting that I didn't realize that few other areas seem to call it that from what I can tell?

How many times does the digit 2 appear in the local crappy pizza 7 digit phone number?

I wouldn't know that lol

I was wondering because it was either Detroit or Winnipeg, my hometown with 2222etc pizza joints.

Winnipeg always had "devil's night" going back to at least the '70s.

One of the worlds most useless canals goes through my town (on it's path to crossing the entire width of the country). It was built largely with russian POW's. However, roughly eight years before it was completed, steam locomitives became a thing, making it obsolete.

I think you're referring to the Masurian Canal, so you could be in either Russia or Poland.

Close, but no dice. This one was built a fair while earlier , and is part of a 390km long waterway (of which the majority is natural). It's still maintained today, but not used for any commercial traffic.

Ooooh, that sounds like the Göta Canal, making you Swedish! The Masurian Canal was built far too late to be correct but my brain was fixated on the uselessness aspect.

More navigable waterways than any other US state. (From there but no longer live there).

Louisiana?

No…

Wisconsin or Minnesota

(Doesn't the name translate to Land of Many Lakes?)

It is true about the lakes in Minnesota but navigable would be traverse travel by maritime vessels. So no…

An estimated 132,000 miles of river and stream channels, representing the state’s 17 major river systems, are carved into Alabama’s landscape, with about 61 percent flowing permanently throughout the year and 39 percent flowing only intermittently during wetter times. At 1,438 miles, Alabama leads the nation in miles of navigable channels, with 16 lock-and-dam structures on six river systems. More than 20 hydroelectric generating facilities and 20 or more impoundments on smaller streams for public water supply have been built throughout the state. The total surface area of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs is 563,000 acres, and about 33.5 trillion gallons of water flow through Alabama’s river and stream channels every year. Also, Alabama’s underground water supplies are estimated at about 553 trillion gallons, or more than 16 times the amount of surface water.

In the city where I live there are two train stations, next to each other, and with different track gauges.

I'd guess somewhere near the Spanish-French border, because I happen to know that Spain uses a different gauge to the rest of Europe.

It's in Spain. Because for some reason (probably a war?) in some regions we have the standard gauge as well as the "narrow" one.

Bilbao? Just guessing from looking at the map to be honest, ha.

Very close :)

Just to get an idea what I mean when I say the stations are close to each other

Close to Bilbao too? So in Basque Country?

Our first ever ruler from when we became an independent nation was known to carry pieces of roasted chicken in his suit pockets to sneak in snacks during the day.

What the hell? 😂

He was a bit of

A character

History remembers him as a buffoon. History is wrong. He was a sly old fox and his bumbling antics were masking quite the sharp mind.

A century ago, we had a disaster caused by a tsunami of molasses 25 ft high, going 35 mph

Boston

I don’t know if you’re from here or I gave too many hints, making it too easy to search, but YES

When I was a kid (primary school, ~2010), I watched a History Channel show about it with my little brother.

Back then, we just thought the "Boston Molassacre" was a funny name for a tragedy, so it's stuck in my head.

The church I grew up attending was built in 1727

That doesn't narrow it down much - sounds like you are in one of:

  • Alsace (Saint Maurice)
  • Bohol, Philippines (Baclayon)
  • Bratislava (the cathedral)
  • Carpeneto (San Giorgio)
  • Cingoli (San Domenico)
  • Derbyshire (St Swithin's)
  • Gothenburg (Nödinge)
  • Hasselt (Virga Jesse)
  • Lillehammer (Fåberg)
  • Malta (St Anthony of Padua)
  • Racconigi (Santa Maria Maggiore)
  • Žďár nad Sázavou (Saint John of Nepomuk)

I'm going to guess Holmesfield?

The city I'm from has more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam combined.

There's a catholic cathedral that was designed by a protestant and a protestant cathedral that was designed by a catholic.

root beer flavored milk for $0.25 a cup among other flavors like chocolate and banana

A song from my country is used in Hollywood, in instrumental form, as an exotic romantic dance. It's actually, according to the lyrics, about a gambling addict comparing his horse race obsession with the intense nature of his romantic infatuations.

Edit: come on! No takers?

We won three wars against the UK in the 19th century.

My hometown was most notable for a husband and wife serial killer pair who preyed on young girls in the area. This one will be easy to guess.

St. Catherine's?

Well you spelled it wrong but yes. Haha. St. Catharines.

Oops, I've read that name at least a dozen times and never realized. I follow Canadian news a lot (you guys have the best radio and music in the world). Terribly sad case, and it feels like justice wasn't served.

That evil witch got off so lightly. I attended one of the victim's funerals and it was so very hideous. Glad you like our artists!

An island of three sides.

Either Cyprus if you mean three bits controlled by different powers, or St Martin, which is sort of triangular?

Close, it's Bermuda (Bermuda triangle reference)

My city has the most strip clubs per capita in the USA

What up, neighbor. Which of the 5 quadrants?

The area formerly known as felony flats

Heh. "Formerly" is a creative way to put that, but I hear ya. "Out in the numbers" as it were. 🤘🏽 Stay hungry, fellow pleb.

My hometown was a well-known regional port and was the home of a "medical" serial killer (both in the early 20th century) who was responsible for over 15 deaths over 4 years.

I live near Main Street USA, but not in Florida or Missouri.

I've heard the sound of a Lancaster bomber with all 4 Merlin engines flying over my rural home many times.

Lobsters are a MAJOR thing so much so they host festivals and such. They're world famous as well selling over in Japan I believe being the primary buyer