Why you should appreciate your hometown's slogan
Larissa Walkiw
I remember reading a feature in the newspaper this summer that questioned Edmonton’s current city slogan. Some reader responses expressed disappointment with the ‘City of Champions’ tag and even suggested that a search for a new slogan take place.
The reason I’m mentioning this is because I’ve just found an entertaining ‘article’ on Wikipedia. It’s a list of city slogans and nicknames in the United States (see it here). My support for Edmonton’s slogan may have been wavering before, but after looking through the list, I am thankful that Edmonton didn’t beat out Pullman, Washington for “The Lentil Capital” title. Phew.
After weeding out all of the fruit and vegetable capitals (I swear, there are like 8 birthplaces of the watermelon) and filtering out a dozen or so “The City with a Future!” clichés, I was left with a long list of nickname gems:
The hopelessly deluded ones:
Talent, Oregon: “Our name speaks for itself!”
The “Worst family roadtrip ever” ones:
Kenton, Tennessee: "Home of the White Squirrels"
Dalton, Georgia: "Carpet Capital of the World"
Cawker City, Kansas: "Home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine"
The ones that didn’t make the brochure:
Wilmington, Delaware: "Chemical Capital of the World"
New Mexico Gallup: "Drunk Driving Capital of America"
The particularly curious ones:
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois: "Shampoo-Banana"
Algona, Iowa: "The World’s Largest Cheeto"
Fruita, Colorado: "Home of Mike the Headless Chicken"
I don’t think any town or city in all of Alberta has anything to worry about.
Larissa
(writing from the Young & Free Capital of the Internet)
