Weird names for stuff

Yurt = round tent cabin
checkstand = cash register
fifth-wheel = trailer
chautauqua = a kind of lecture or talk
no-host bar = cash bar
Freddie's = Fred Meyer
McMenamims = McMenamins

These terms are probably used elsewhere on earth, but I didn't encounter them when I lived there. There are probably better examples of this phenomenon, but I'm too tired to think of them. No-host bar is completely unnecessary. Cash bar says it all, people.

Freddie's is awesome because it captures people at their dumbest, and then some. Shortening an already short name and making it possessive is silly in a childish way. What possesses people to make Barnes & Noble "Barnes & Noble's" or Victoria's Secret "Victoria's Secrets"? I don't know. Perhaps it's a secrets.

McMenamins is a little out of place here, because it's a chain of bars and restaurants in the Beaver State -- remind me to post on that nickname sometime -- but there are a lot of people around here who get tongue-tied trying to pronounce McMenamins correctly. And I guaranfrickintee that there are people who pronounce it "Mcmenamins's," though thankfully I don't know any of them.

Related: People here seem pronounce genre "johnre," which I'd never before realized was a viable alternative to the far more melodious "zhenre." In their presence, you should never, ever pronounce the final "e" in coyote, or you'll hear about it. And never, ever pronounce "Nevada" in a way that reflects you know some Spanish. They're all about white-bred pronunciations here.