You know you're from Rochester, NY when...

[Lynne Murphy]

>--On Friday, February 23, 2001 4:08 pm +0100 Grant Barrett
><gbarrett at MONICKELS.COM> wrote:
>
>> On vendredi 23 février 2001 10:26, Lynne Murphy <lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>> 37. Half the change in your pocket is Canadian, eh.
>>
>> My question is, is it acceptable currency? That is, do you have the
>> change because
>>
>> a) you went to Canada
>> b) a sly clerk slipped it in with your "real" money (and  it'll end up in
>> a jar on the bureau, never to be spent) or
>> c) everyone passes it around, accepts it as change and thinks little of
>> it?
>
The answer is (c).  In the Rochester and Buffalo areas, people use
Canadian quarters/dimes/nickels/pennies (but not loonies) without regard
for the exchange rate.  It's always a pain to deal with vending machines,
since you might find yourself with correct change--except that one of the
coins is Canadian and the machine won't take it.  Life is so
unfair.

I was actually very surprised when I first moved out of the
area (to Massachusetts) and found that cashiers wouldn't accept
a Canadian penny.

BTW, a friend of mine reminded me who Vinnie and Angelo are.
They're two guys who (play? are?) brothers on advertisements
for Irondequoit Dodge. Their 'mother', who's usually cooking
big dishes of lasagna or some such thing, urges people (in an
Italian[-American?] accent) to buy cars from 'my boys'.



M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320