Was New Orleans, LA *ever* called NOLA before Katrina?

[Orrex]

I may be the only one who feels this way, but this abbreviation really bugs me.

Not a big deal--just asking.

[Gman]

1. Yeah,

check www.nola.com

[Scout1071]

3. Wow - great minds think alike!

[klook]

8. Argghhh...slow on the draw again. :)

[Scout1071]

2. Yes. That is why the main website is www.nola.com

[xray s]

4. yes

it is a common way to shorthand New Orleans Louisiana

[henslee]

5. I think its weird too. When I see "NO" as part of an acronym, I think of

"NORTH OF" as in NOHO.

[On the Road]

21. NOHO = North of Ho?

:smoke:

[henslee]

27. Ho -- houston.

[klook]

6. Yeah, for many years -- by natives, too

Note that the New Orleans Times-Picayune's web site is http://www.nola.com

[hlthe2b]

7. forever.... from my memory...

[AverageJoe]

9. There was a great little magazine published there in the 60's

called the NOLA Express. It was a mix of art, literature and politics. Charles Bukowski published there regularly. Groovy stuff.

[enigmatic]

11. Yep

Fantastic magazine, and Bukowski is one of my heroes.

NOLA has been in use forever; this is not a new thing.

[AverageJoe]

31. Bukowski is one of my heroes, too

You might say I'm kind of a fanatic. Pleased ta meecha, enigmatic!


To all my friends...!

[enigmatic]

34. My man!

I've got a letter from Bukowski from 1991 that he wrote me hanging in my bathroom (don't ask) :) ; it's one of my prized possesions. He kept me alove for many, many years during my own roads to nowhere..

[AverageJoe]

35. Got you beat

I have two letters from Buk hanging on my wall. Yes, prized possessions, indeed.

I started reading Bukowski back around 1979 or 80 and right from the start I knew there was nothing else like his work anywhere. In all these years I still haven't found anything else that compares.

There are so many of his lines that cut right to the bone.

Hey man, I'm damned glad to know you.

[enigmatic]

39. Glad to know you to, bro

I've got a few of Buk's poems playing on my overnight show, and we also play a few of his recorded readings on our Sunday Night Spoken Word show; I'll give you a heads-up next time we play them:)

[AverageJoe]

40. Cool, man

I'll look forward to it.

By the way, have you seen the new movie they did of FACTOTUM, with Matt Dillon as Henry Chinaski? I hear it's pretty good. I also hear that the Bukowski documentary which came out a year or two ago is dynamite. Maybe someday they'll be available on DVD....

[Clark2008]

29. There's also a computer support service out of New Orleans

who contracts with a lot of federal businesses (such as Oak Ridge National Labs) called NOLA Computer Services.

They're one of my clients. Poor things haven't accounted for two of their employees in New Orleans since the floods. I'm having to bill their Oak Ridge, TN office instead of the main one in NO since there IS no main office anymore. :(

[tx_dem41]

10. I'm from there. Its a common abbreviation.

NO ONE from there calls it NEW ORLEEEENZ...that's for sure, and we don't actually speak out "NOLA" . But it works as shorthand when writing it.

[Demit]

12. We had a great restaurant here in Philly in the 70s called Cafe Nola.

And we did say the word "Nola". Sigh. It was great--Angels on Horseback for hungover Sunday brunches.

[LynzM]

15. Does it come out sounding more like...

"Nawlins"?

[tx_dem41]

16. Not exactly....people that say that brand themselves as outsiders..

who have been there...but still outsiders. Its hard to spell how the insiders say it...but I'll give it a try:

Na-awrlins (you say the "Na" quickly, and you kind of swallow the "r" in "awrlins" so that you barely hear it.).

Hope that made some kind of sense.

[trof]

23. My FIL said "nuh-awlins".

He was born and raised there.
Cajun feller.

[tx_dem41]

25. Except for the almost-silent, swallowed "r"...

thats the phonetic spelling I was looking for.

[trof]

26. Yeah, it's a very,very, very soft "ahh". On another note

The downtown metro New Orleans accent has always sounded faintly Brooklyn to me.

[donheld]

13. NOLA just makes sense

As others have pointed out for New Orleans LA, NOLA just easily rolls off the tongue. Besides that, many quibble about how to really pronounce New Orleans correctly.

[RagAss]

14. Not to mention many a tattoo after a long night of booze....

like NOLA-'78

[Sgent]

17. Its a much better abreviation

than NO -- which I have seen until the press caught on to the native slang of NOLA.

Its been around for a long, long time.

[Orrex]

18. REPLY TO ALL

Well, that's wacky! I swear I'd never once heard or seen NOLA before Katrina. It bugged me in the same way that I was bugged when people started referring to the original Star Wars as EPIV, as if they'd done it all along. But I'm gratified to see that it's not some trite, media-beloved shorthandism.


Thanks for cluing me in!

[Ratty]

19. You're not alone

The first few days of the hurricane I kept seeing references to NOLA and couldn't figure out what it was. I thought it was just some agency acronym but EVERYBODY was using it like they always knew what it was. I guess NOLA bugs and annoys me because I was too stupid to realize what it meant right away.

[Coastie for Truth]

20. It was when I lived there (1966-69)

[crispini]

30. You probably knew the airport as Mouissant, right?

My dad still calls it that. MSY.

[Coastie for Truth]

38. I remember when

the recycled, regentrified boutique mall next to Commander's Palace was an auto body shop, and

there was a neat, affordable neighborhood deli on Carrollton (near Xavier ?) and another affordable neighborhood on St. Charles about a block towards Canal Street from Calhoun.

Kolbs and the Oyster House, both on St. Charles near Canal.

[Maddy McCall]

22. Yes. I've always used it, always will.

[darkism]

24. I'd never heard of the abbreviation until I went there in 2001

Been using it ever since.


I <3 you, NOLA, and hope to return sooner than later!

[DisgustedTX]

28. Only when abbreviatin' BUSHIES took hold

It is annoying.

[Kazak]

32. Of course it was...

think about it! :eyes:

[Heewack]

33. Yep.

http://www.emerils.com/restaurants/neworleans_nola/index.html

[susanna]

36. Yes...I've seen it used it for years...

Maybe you just haven't seen it before? :shrug:

[kskiska]

37. Now that the 9th Ward is just about gone

will there still be "Y'ats?" (As in Where y'at?)

Who dat say dey can beat dem Saints?

Lived there for a while.