GIGO: words unreadable aloud

City Nicknames, Take VIII

I guess I missed the city nicknames article that was apparently in the September/October issue of the Via Magazine. The current issue has some letters to the editor that had me add a few cities to my City Nicknames list:

Petaluma, CA — Egg Basket of the World
Kelseyville, CA and the Rogue River Valley, in southern Oregon, both lay claim to being the "Pear Capital of the World". However, my wife says that it's gotta be Ben Lomond.
Lodi, CA — The [Tokay] Grape Capital of the World
It's probably more popularly known as the place where Creedence Clearwater Reunion got stuck in once, in the 1960's. We stayed overnight there, a month ago. The town has gotten nicer than it used to be. Still gets into the 100's often in the summer, though.
Oxnard, CA — Strawberry Capital of the World
But have a look at the website for the Monterey Bay Strawberry Festival. California produces 83% of the country's strawberry, and the Monterey Bay Area (mostly the Pajaro Valley, surrounding Watsonville) has almost half of the state's strawberry acreage.
A couple of decades ago, the SF and Monterey Bay Areas had an outbreak of Mediterranean fruit flies ("medflies"). The powers that be decided to quarantine various kinds of fruit in order to prevent the flies from spreading. So, Watsonville's enormous strawberry crop could not legally be taken out of the county, and we were able to get the most luscious strawberries for very low prices that year.

10:53:13 AM comment/