Where are people in this forum from?

[longlake95]

Barrie, Ontario, Canada (1 hour north of Toronto)

 

[Lemsip]

Berkshire, close to London, in the UK

[Guest cherzeca]

never saw this thread till now.  the big friggin apple

[Warner]

Atyrau, Kazakhstan

[Castanza]

Columbus, OH

[rkbabang]

never saw this thread till now.  the big friggin apple

 

Considering this is a financial forum, I'm somewhat surprised that this thread doesn't have a lot more big friggin applers than it does.

 

[Janeo]

The little red dot, Singapore  ;D

[John Hjorth]

Considering this is a financial forum, I'm somewhat surprised that this thread doesn't have a lot more big friggin applers than it does.

 

Perhaps that may be because most the finance people in the big friggin apple are in the business of making sure customers aren't able to buy yachts. CoBF is pretty much global - which to me is quite mind provoking and awesome. I do however not recall having read a post on here with love from Russia or from Antarctica.

[Liberty]

Berkshire, close to London, in the UK

 

That's an aptly named location for a member of this forum.

[SmallCap]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

[boilermaker75]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Holland, MI?

[Dynamic]

Berkshire, close to London, in the UK

 

That's an aptly named location for a member of this forum.

 

Very apt indeed. I once pondered calling myself SussexHathaway online as I live in one half of that traditional county, a couple of counties away from the Royal County of Berkshire, which for those who don't know, contains Windsor Castle in the town of Windsor, one of the Queen's major residences. But someone had made the same kind of joke on Motley Fool I think - SuffolkHathaway if I recall correctly. I worked in the county of Suffolk for a while too.

 

I wonder @Lemsip, if, like me, you've adopted the American pronunciation for the company Berkshire Hathaway (which I did after a number of years when there was more audio content and YouTube videos to confirm how it was pronounced by the likes of Warren and Charlie)

 

We Brits have developed some bizarre pronunciations for place names (famously Leicester being pronounced LESTER, and Worcestershire being pronounced WOOSTER-SHEAR with a short OO sound, and don't get me started on small places like Trottiscliffe = TROZE-LEE, Wrotham = ROOT'UM or Happisburgh = HAZE-BRUH!).

 

For Brits, the county of Berkshire is pronounced BARK-SHUH or BARK-SHEAH by the non-rhotic Brits from the south-east who usually drop the final R sound from words like Hear in normal speech, or BARK-SHEAR for those rhotic accent Brits mainly from the western parts. I've heard British financial journalists like Evan Davis, who interviewed Warren Buffett a few years ago for the BBC, refer to Berkshire Hathaway with both American and British pronunciations at times, but probably veering to the more American version BURKE-SHUH or BURKE-SHURE or even BURKE-SHY'R for consistency with the interviewees.

[Pelagic]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Being from South Florida, snow on the streets is a bit of a foreign concept to me. However, from an engineering standpoint, reading about your city's snowmelt system is fascinating. I wonder what the cost advantages (if any) are in terms of developing/maintaining the system vs. traditional plowing and salting.

[rkbabang]

Berkshire, close to London, in the UK

 

That's an aptly named location for a member of this forum.

 

Very apt indeed. I once pondered calling myself SussexHathaway online as I live in one half of that traditional county, a couple of counties away from the Royal County of Berkshire, which for those who don't know, contains Windsor Castle in the town of Windsor, one of the Queen's major residences. But someone had made the same kind of joke on Motley Fool I think - SuffolkHathaway if I recall correctly. I worked in the county of Suffolk for a while too.

 

I wonder @Lemsip, if, like me, you've adopted the American pronunciation for the company Berkshire Hathaway (which I did after a number of years when there was more audio content and YouTube videos to confirm how it was pronounced by the likes of Warren and Charlie)

 

We Brits have developed some bizarre pronunciations for place names (famously Leicester being pronounced LESTER, and Worcestershire being pronounced WOOSTER-SHEAR with a short OO sound, and don't get me started on small places like Trottiscliffe = TROZE-LEE, Wrotham = ROOT'UM or Happisburgh = HAZE-BRUH!).

 

For Brits, the county of Berkshire is pronounced BARK-SHUH or BARK-SHEAH by the non-rhotic Brits from the south-east who usually drop the final R sound from words like Hear in normal speech, or BARK-SHEAR for those rhotic accent Brits mainly from the western parts. I've heard British financial journalists like Evan Davis, who interviewed Warren Buffett a few years ago for the BBC, refer to Berkshire Hathaway with both American and British pronunciations at times, but probably veering to the more American version BURKE-SHUH or BURKE-SHURE or even BURKE-SHY'R for consistency with the interviewees.

 

Interesting I didn't realize there was a different pronunciation for Berkshire.  In Massachusetts there are plenty of towns with English names and funny pronunciations, but Berkshire is still pronounced the American way.  I went to college in Worcester, MA and I heard it pronounced both Woost-ah and Wist-ah (but never with an r at the end), when someone says War-chester or Wor-kester you know they aren't from the area.  I pronounce Worcestershire as WOO-STAH-SHEAH (no "r"s). There is a Leicester, MA as well and it is pronounced Lestah (basically LESTER without the "r").  I lived for a time in Raynham, MA and it had two different pronunciations that were used by the natives interchangeably: Rain-ham (emphasis on 2nd syllable) or Rainem (no "h" and emphasis on 1st syllable).

 

[SmallCap]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Holland, MI?

 

Nailed it.

 

4 out of 5 great lakes agree that Michigan really is the best state.

 

I live on the coast with hundreds of miles of sandy beaches on lake michigan on the sunset side of the lake.

[Spekulatius]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Holland, Michigan?

[SmallCap]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Being from South Florida, snow on the streets is a bit of a foreign concept to me. However, from an engineering standpoint, reading about your city's snowmelt system is fascinating. I wonder what the cost advantages (if any) are in terms of developing/maintaining the system vs. traditional plowing and salting.

 

It's a very interesting system and there are many hard to quantify aspects of the snowmelt as compared to salt and plows.

1. This is used extensively in our historic downtown shopping district.

2. the lack of snow makes for a perfect outdoor shopping experience

3. there are now year-round runners who use the area creating more foot traffic in the shopping area.

4. Salt destroys both cars and shop floors

5. plowing can really rip up a downtown streetscape will all the paver crossings, curbs, and parking slots.

 

Also, you probably saw this but all the hot water comes from waste heat from the municipal-owned NG power plant so the ongoing cost is negligible.

 

I don't have a good ROI timeframe on the initial install which as you can guess is extensive and is only done when you are ripping up everything and replacing a lot of old infrastructures.

They installed the first section in the late 80's and as far as I know, haven't had to do any serious maintenance.

 

I wrote a blog post about the engineer who had the vision for the system if you are interested.

https://www.sethgetz.com/2019/01/a-tale-of-two-cities-and-businesses.html

[boilermaker75]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Holland, MI?

 

Nailed it.

 

4 out of 5 great lakes agree that Michigan really is the best state.

 

I live on the coast with hundreds of miles of sandy beaches on lake michigan on the sunset side of the lake.

 

From my user name you probably surmised I hail from a neighboring state.

[Pelagic]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Being from South Florida, snow on the streets is a bit of a foreign concept to me. However, from an engineering standpoint, reading about your city's snowmelt system is fascinating. I wonder what the cost advantages (if any) are in terms of developing/maintaining the system vs. traditional plowing and salting.

 

It's a very interesting system and there are many hard to quantify aspects of the snowmelt as compared to salt and plows.

1. This is used extensively in our historic downtown shopping district.

2. the lack of snow makes for a perfect outdoor shopping experience

3. there are now year-round runners who use the area creating more foot traffic in the shopping area.

4. Salt destroys both cars and shop floors

5. plowing can really rip up a downtown streetscape will all the paver crossings, curbs, and parking slots.

 

Also, you probably saw this but all the hot water comes from waste heat from the municipal-owned NG power plant so the ongoing cost is negligible.

 

I don't have a good ROI timeframe on the initial install which as you can guess is extensive and is only done when you are ripping up everything and replacing a lot of old infrastructures.

They installed the first section in the late 80's and as far as I know, haven't had to do any serious maintenance.

 

I wrote a blog post about the engineer who had the vision for the system if you are interested.

https://www.sethgetz.com/2019/01/a-tale-of-two-cities-and-businesses.html

 

Thanks, I was looking at it in terms of safety/traffic but in reality it revitalized the downtown area and helps it flourish year round. Also love that they were able to re-purpose the waste heat from the power plant.

 

While mostly unintentional, here's what my local power plant's thermal waste has accomplished. https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-12/nuclear-plants-cooling-canals-help-save-endangered-florida-crocodiles

[Maximu]

Kelowna, British Columbia

[Jurgis]

Who can figure this out without digging into my profile?

 

4 out of 5 water bodies call my state the best state

 

I live on what is called

the 4th coast

The sunset coast

 

In a town named for a European location

with a flower festival

and the Largest snowmelt system in North America

 

Being from South Florida, snow on the streets is a bit of a foreign concept to me. However, from an engineering standpoint, reading about your city's snowmelt system is fascinating. I wonder what the cost advantages (if any) are in terms of developing/maintaining the system vs. traditional plowing and salting.

 

It's a very interesting system and there are many hard to quantify aspects of the snowmelt as compared to salt and plows.

1. This is used extensively in our historic downtown shopping district.

2. the lack of snow makes for a perfect outdoor shopping experience

3. there are now year-round runners who use the area creating more foot traffic in the shopping area.

4. Salt destroys both cars and shop floors

5. plowing can really rip up a downtown streetscape will all the paver crossings, curbs, and parking slots.

 

Also, you probably saw this but all the hot water comes from waste heat from the municipal-owned NG power plant so the ongoing cost is negligible.

 

I don't have a good ROI timeframe on the initial install which as you can guess is extensive and is only done when you are ripping up everything and replacing a lot of old infrastructures.

They installed the first section in the late 80's and as far as I know, haven't had to do any serious maintenance.

 

I wrote a blog post about the engineer who had the vision for the system if you are interested.

https://www.sethgetz.com/2019/01/a-tale-of-two-cities-and-businesses.html

 

Pretty amazing story.  8)

[Dynamic]

Interesting I didn't realize there was a different pronunciation for Berkshire.  In Massachusetts there are plenty of towns with English names and funny pronunciations, but Berkshire is still pronounced the American way.  I went to college in Worcester, MA and I heard it pronounced both Woost-ah and Wist-ah (but never with an r at the end), when someone says War-chester or Wor-kester you know they aren't from the area.  I pronounce Worcestershire as WOO-STAH-SHEAH (no "r"s). There is a Leicester, MA as well and it is pronounced Lestah (basically LESTER without the "r").  I lived for a time in Raynham, MA and it had two different pronunciations that were used by the natives interchangeably: Rain-ham (emphasis on 2nd syllable) or Rainem (no "h" and emphasis on 1st syllable).

 

Actually, I got a bit lazy in removing the r's from that batch of places, though some Brits from the western parts would keep them in. Being non-rhotic, I would also pronounce it LESStah, WOO-stah-sheah without the r's and with first syllable emphasis. There's a Rainham, Kent in the UK, which is RAIN'em too.

 

An amusing story one of my old school friends recounted was a car pulling over beside him as he was walking along the main road near Battle, East Sussex around 1988, and the American couple within asked him,

"Excuse me young man, is this the correct road to get to SAVANNAH-WAX?"

 

He looked bemused and said he didn't know such a place until they showed him the road map with the town of Sevenoaks (named for a cluster of seven oak trees) that they were planning to visit, some 30 miles up the road. He was then able to tell them it's pronounced seven-oaks and confirm they were heading the right way. Obviously they had decided in their heads that the word should be split Se-ven-o-aks to be pronounced, and with their slightly different vowel intonation to his, he picked it up as Savannah-Wax, which was a new one on all of us. I feel there should be a native tribe in Kent call the se-ven-o-ak people after whom the town was named, who now prosper from the sale of a high grade car polish marketed as Savannah Wax.

[Wabash02]

South Bend, Indiana.

 

Smallcap: I've certainly been to Holland but never knew about the Snowmelt system.  Pretty amazing.

[wondering]

Toronto, Ontario

[boilermaker75]

South Bend, Indiana.

 

Smallcap: I've certainly been to Holland but never knew about the Snowmelt system.  Pretty amazing.

 

I've been all around that area but actually have never visited Holland, MI. I have sampled many of New Holland Brew's beverages and will have to visit!