@CALSmom right?! I can’t wait to see Issa and Rohrbacher retired either!
Folks in NorCal, skip the definite article. For example, in the Bay Area, they’d just say, “take 101,” whereas down in the south of the state, folks will say, “take the 101.”
Does anyone remember the SNL skit “The Californians”? I always chuckled when they would randomly insert driving directions into the dialogue. Totally spot on with how obsessive California folks are about their routes and shortcuts. I’m in Texas now but spent almost 40 years in Los Angeles and countless hours on the road.
I grew up in northern California (SF Bay Area). Went to college in southern California & lived f
or 2 years post-graduation. Now live in Arizona. From my experiences, a few observations: 
- nobody who actually lived in northern California actually referred to it as "Nor Cal."
- "Cal" = UC Berkeley
- yes, UCLA does see themselves as better than Cal
- at the time, you could tell which part of the state somebody lived in based on whether or not they wore socks with their Birkenstocks
- nobody who lives in CA actually calls it "Cali." It's a stupid abbreviation.
- nobody in Arizona ever refers to themselves as "zonies." That's stupid, too.
- the local news in Southern California always seemed to spend the first 5-10 min of the evening broadcast talking about what celebrities were doing. Huge difference compared to northern California news.
- Nobody in northern California refers to San Francisco as "Frisco."
- SF Bay Area residents always sounded like super snobs when they said, "Oh, I'm going into The City this weekend" or "You live where? Well, WE live in The City!" ROFL
- SF Bay Area residents seemed to view themselves as superior to people living in southern CA. Just like here in Arizona, Phoenix residents, in general, look down their noses at Tucson and act like Tucson is in outer Mongolia with no running water or electricity. It's pretty funny.
What’s great about this thread is the energy and resilience, the small things we remember and treasure(d.) Even what makes us hot under the collar.
Well, Cal Worthington was pretty big in S Ca (ok, to people who notice things like that.) But reading others valued the old Third St in SM, is nice. We could go on about the skaters and Fox Venice. The affection is clear. Even if many sometimes hate to admit it.
OK, I know not to pronounce the S at the end of Illinois. And, I can emulate the native pronunciation of Hawai’i fairly well. How are we supposed to pronounce Missouri?
Miz oor ra
@tucsonmom - Here in West Virginia, Charleston residents tend to do the same thing with the rest of the state.
“- nobody in Arizona ever refers to themselves as “zonies.” That’s stupid, too.”
I never thought they did. I always took “zonies” to be mild, good-natured insult that Californians used when referring to residents of Arizona.
“- the local news in Southern California always seemed to spend the first 5-10 min of the evening broadcast talking about what celebrities were doing. Huge difference compared to northern California news.”
In LA maybe but not here in San Diego. If there is any recurrent theme at all, I’d say the lead story on the news in SD seems to often be about how great the weather is.
“- SF Bay Area residents seemed to view themselves as superior to people living in southern CA.”
True enough, but the people living in southern California don’t care. Folks up north can think whatever they like; we’re having too much fun to worry about it.
@Ynotgo I think it’s pronounced “Misery”. At least I first heard that from someone from the state.
au contraire. I’m third generation Northern California, and I used NorCal all the time.
What? Last I watched, the SoCal news leads with the celebrities.
@Scipio BINGO! :))
No one from Pittsburgh would ever abbreviate the city as “Pitt” either in writing or speaking; the only people who do this are out-of-towners who don’t know any better.
PGH is the accepted shorthand for the name of the city. PIT is the airport code. And Pitt is the university.
All of my siblings were born in Cali and we have roots there. Lived in both NoCal and SoCal. This is just a matter of social snobbery. Some people enjoy abbreviating things, others like to hear themselves say every syllable. I don’t always refer to the Golden State as Cali, but when I do, it is usually to annoy someone.
Ahh, synchronicity! A travel website I frequent just sent me a 30% off email for my next stay in California. There’s a promo code you have to type in to get the discount.
The code is four letters. Would anyone care to guess which four letters? 
Yep, you guessed it - CALI.
OK, all together now - one, two, three, “DUDE!”
I’m curious as to whether your children would be irritated by the Cali usage as much as the adult here? I get a feeling that a lot of this is generational, perhaps due to the rap/hip hop references to Cali.
@Bevhills, I had a boyfriend who was from Beverly Hills. He was exactly like you when meeting a new person. Where are you from? California. Oh, what part? Southern California. Oh, what city? Los Angeles. Oh, what part? At this point the rest of us were practically rolling on the ground clutching our ribs. Beverley Hills! He’s from Beverly Hills!!!
Oh, BTW, my mother told me she kept getting ads from a local place called La Fitness (think French) that seemed convenient and cheap and she was thinking of checking it out. I told her that it was LA fitness. We had a good chuckle over it. There was a poster here called Lafalum. For years, I thought her name was La Falum (think French again). Of course s/he was actually LAFayetteALUM.
La Fitness would NOT be inexpensive. It is a French facility. L.A. Fitness would be far cheaper.
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Question, why does the 405 called the San Diego freeway? It terminates in Irvine.
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Lol…I thought you were going to ask why Californians put “the” in front of their freeway/highway/interstate numbers.
Californians don’t say, “Cali,” but we do say, “the.”
BTW…the 405 is only one segment of the SD freeway. Part of the 5 is the other segment.
It is a generational thing I think. A few hip hop songs refer to it as Cali. I tend to type Cali whenever I speak to ppl from midwest and my kids, born and raised in CA, but living elsewhere use it too. Doesn’t bother me as I am sure I make several fubars when I’m visiting other places.
My hubs hates it when ppl here say “back east.” He says that’s incorrect if you aren’t from there. Really peeves him lol