Should it be absolutely verboten, or are there situations in which it is OK to use it

-- Abigail Johnston (aldwj@aol.com), September 04, 2004

Answers

ARGH! NO, no, no, no, no-o-o-o-o-o! A sin of the Sinatra sort.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), September 05, 2004.

Please feel free to call it Frisco, we need the dough.

Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word "Frisco," which has no linguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a High Misdemeanor, and shall pay into the Imperial Treasury as penalty the sum of twenty-five dollars. - NORTON I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, 1872

Mind you, it's only a High Misdemeanor, but refusing to pay the penalty is a felony, punishable by flogging.

-- strange (stranger@yahoo.com), September 05, 2004.

Well, it might have been a little awkward to use the name "Frisco' back in the day. But most people don't know the difference. For info, if you say "Frisco" make sure you use this slanguage with a little tongue in cheek. Those outside the confines of being natives wouldn't know the difference. BUT, if you use it in the company of someone born in the mid-1950's or earlier, you might get their ire up. Voila !!! You're in the company of a native San Franciscan or someone who dearly knows and loves Baghdad by the Bay, ala Herb Caen. Good Luck !

-- Native San Franciscan (morocco7@aol.com), September 06, 2004.

God Damn........finally I have found someone to back up the fact that I, a person born prior to the 50's, having gone to Uluoa, Parkside, Aptos, Lincoln really gets the Ire up when one, especially those not from our great City, uses the term "Frisco"! Damn! I especially relate to the "good ole days" of Fleischbacher Pool" ( which actually brought me to this web site) and I love the memories of being able to take the "L" home late at night as my Mom left the door unlocked until I got Home!

-- Ethie (letstvl@aol.com), September 06, 2004.

To tell you the truth, I feel FRISCO is a perfectly appropriate name for San Francisco. FREEZing and San Francisco equal FRISCO. And I have to tell you all that 95 percent of a year that you live in San Francisco, YOU FREEZE. Of course, a lot of you never go out except to get in your cars so you wouldn't even know.

There are constant Northerly and Westerly winds. The temperature may hit in the 60s to mid 60s between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and then the winds will start coming in and bring the wind chill factor of those 60s degrees down to 40 degrees. That is a typical San Francisco day. Nighttimes are even worse.

The best weather you get around here is between now in Mid September and Mid October where you can get rare warm inland breezes that come out of the east and help bring some warmer weather. The downtown and eastern part of the city are typically a little warmer but the western half of the city is horrible. For people coming from really warm climates like Florida, San Francisco could feel like Alaska. Even 20 miles away in Mill Valley or Walnut Creek, you can have temperatures that are 100 degrees while San Francisco is 40 degrees with its wind chill factor. People are not used to that incredible change. So yeah. I think that anyone who wants to call San Francisco FRISCO has the perfect RIGHT to do so as long as this city remains a cold freezing city.

-- Harry Murphy (harrymurphy*@aol.com), September 25, 2004.

As can be verified by many 1890s San Francisco newspapers in the mircrofilm file of the San Francisco Main Library, use of the term FRISCO was once an accepted daily custom by adverisers.

And despite a widely repeated saying today among those who are usually from someplace other than San Francisco, about never saying FRISCO here, few of those would dare tell the "Frisco Chapter of the Hells Angels" that they must be from somewhere else.

-- H. Michael Barrett (Mimereader2@yahoo.com), September 30, 2004.

Bah! I say use it whenever you want. Who will stop you?

-- Jasen Johnston (CelticJasen@hotmail.com), October 22, 2004.

I was born in 19968 to a fiercely proud, unrepentant 2nd generation native San Franciscian. I was raised not to call it by that name. I do react to this day ask me if I am from San Francisco using that word. I politely tell them no, I am from San Francisco.

-- Timothy J. Zuniga (mexilad@hotmail.com), November 05, 2004.

Why not call it Frisco?! For Christ's sake, Herb Caen finally recanted on this silliness just before he died, saying it was the worst move he ever made -- and thank God he did, it was pure stuffiness and pretension that sparked it in the first place. Frisco as a nickname for San Francisco has a long and honorable history, bespeaking of the great waterfront, blue-collar town we once were. At first it was only the nobs on Nob Hill who turned up their noses. Of course, anything so "democratic" annoyed the hell out of them anyway. These days I've noted elements of the hipper-than-thou crowd have joined the chorus, although I've also noted they don't know much about the place at all. By all means call it Frisco. If City Hall had any smarts they'll place it at the center of a new PR campaign, like New York did with "The Big Apple." Once it brings in the dough, we'll all be calling her Frisco.

-- Grif (grifross@att.net), December 06, 2004.