Coloradan/Coloradoan; potato/puhtahtoe

Why are people who live in the state of Colorado called “Coloradans,” rather than “Coloradoans?” I was born and raised in the city of Chicago and people there are called “Chicagoans.” I wrote to a couple of TV stations after hearing “Coloradans,” but never received a reply.
- Laurance Moe

ANSWER:“Coloradan” is the most widely used pronunciation in Colorado. “Coloradoan” is accepted, but is the second choice. If you punch “Coloradoans” into Google, you’ll end up with “Did you mean to search for Coloradans?” Several people in public office — including Colorado’s new governor — have been referring to residents as “Coloradoans” and the Fort Collins newspaper is called The Coloradoan, but traditionally "Coloradans” is far more common on Web sites, in local history books and on the street.

Fact Monster lists several other states with two or more names for state residents and, like the dictionary, the first is the most widely used:
Alabamian, Alabaman
Connecticuter, Nutmegger
Floridian, Floridan
Indianan, Indianian, Hoosier
Louisianan, Louisianian
Michigander, Michiganian, Michiganite
New Jerseyite, New Jerseyan

You mentioned you are from Chicago. Several Web sites list “Chicagoans” and “Chicagans” as accepted names. According to our sources, “Chicagoans” is preferred, although “Chicagans” is okay.

Cache la Poudre had no poodle connection

Does “Cache La Poudre” really mean “hide the poodle?” How did it get that strange name?
- Marilyn

ANSWER: It wasn’t a poodle they were hiding way back when, it was powder — gunpowder.
Here’s the story that was passed down: Back in the early 1800s, a wagon train of trappers was going from St. Louis to Green River, Wyo., and ran into heavy snow up in Larimer County. The wagons were too heavy, and items had to be left behind, including heavy barrels of gunpowder. Barrels were hidden, or cached, in pits that were camouflaged with coverings of tree limbs and dirt to hide them until the wagon train returned in the spring to pick them up. The river beside the cache became known as the Cache la Poudre (powder) River. Later, when streets were named in Colorado Springs in the late 1800s, some east-west ones were named for Western rivers, including Cache La Poudre Street.

Pink Manitou home not the governor's

I have heard the home at 631 Manitou Ave. (the pink stone house in front of the congregational church one house east of Pawnee) referred to as the old governor’s mansion or the old territorial governor’s mansion. Does anyone have any information?
- Rachel Diedrich

ANSWER: Manitou Springs historian Deborah Harrison said Alexander Cameron Hunt, the fourth territorial governor of the Colorado Territory, built a home in Manitou, but not that one. Apparently the rumor started that the governor had lived at 631 Manitou Ave., and the story stuck. Harrison is interested whether anyone knows which house was the actual Hunt home.

Hunt held the office from 1867 to 1869, but was ousted when President Ulysses S. Grant wanted a political crony in that position. Hunt also built a house in Alamosa, the historic Hunt-Ball House.

Harrison said the pink stone house was built by Robert Richens with pink and white sandstone from the Manitou quarry. Richens, who was a Manitou town trustee in 1877, also built the church in downtown Colorado Springs that became the Village Inn restaurant and is now Eden night club, Harrison said.

Available maps show local neighborhoods

The local media reference is usually made to “area,” i.e. Cragmor, Stetson Hills, etc. Is there a map available that identifies the various “areas” in Colorado Springs? To a relative newbie, a news story about “University Park” means little to me in an area reference.
- Jerry Roggenbauer

ANSWER: In the annual Answer Book, The Gazette printed a handy two-page map of the neighborhoods of Colorado Springs as designated by the post office. The ones you mentioned — University Park, Cragmor and Stetson Hills — are there along with many more. To access the map, go to gazette.com and scroll down the left to Answer Book. The maps are on pages 26 and 27. There are also a variety of maps on the Colorado Springs city government site: http://www.springsgov.com/Page.asp?NavID=822

Tree farms have requirements

TREE FARM: Just north of The Margarita at PineCreek restaurant on Pine Creek Road, there is a sign that reads “Tree Farm: member of the American Tree Farm System.” It looks like a jungle next to Monument Creek, not like a tree farm. What is the deal?
- Margaret Miller

ANSWER: Here’s your answer from Naomi J. Marcus, forester with the Colorado State Forest Service, Woodland Park District:

“Some years ago, the landowner was certified as a tree farmer according to the American Forest Foundation’s guidelines and standards for the American Tree Farm System. In recent years, the AFF ATFS database purged and decertified those who have not been recently re-certified. This landowner, apparently, is one of those purged.” The sign will be allowed to remain posted only if the landowner complies with the program, Marcus said.

In the past, the land was maintained as part of Forest Ag which allows the landowners to sell their timber through the program. The Forest Service said the program “offers similar tax valuation as that of traditional agricultural lands.
Forest landowners voluntarily participate in the Forest Ag program, and must fulfill certain requirements for initial and continued eligibility.”

Sonic couple doesn't go home together

We’re having a friendly disagreement in our office. Part of us are convinced the battling couple in the Sonic commercials are married. Others are convinced they aren’t. Who wins?
- The Lunch Break Crew

ANSWER: Buy lunch for the “they’re not married” group. Molly and Brian are actors.
Here’s the skinny from Barkley, the marketing communications company that handles the Sonic account. It all started in 2002 with the Pete and TJ (“Two Guys”)campaign and the “Couples" were added in 2005 with the introduction of Molly and Brian. “Molly and Brian are working improv actors (their full names are Molly Erdman and Brian Huskey). This campaign is unique because it is completely improvisational and unscripted, which is unheard of in the industry. We actually shoot the commercials on lot at a Sonic Drive-In, give the actors an index card with a concept and begin rolling the cameras,” said Sara Laughlin, Barkley senior account manager.

“The concept for the campaign was to play a bit off reality TV (no directors, only cameras) and to let customers feel like the Two Guys and Molly and Brian really represented them.” Laughlin says what’s funny is they receive calls and e-mails directed to the two guys and the couple by name, yet the names have been used only occasionally in ads. Will there be more husband-wife banter coming from Molly and Brian? Oh, you bet. “We’re just beginning to scratch the surface,” Laughlin said
.

Misspelled street names are history

What is the correct spelling for this street: Poinsetta Drive or Poinsettia Drive? Mapquest shows it as Poinsetta Drive but the Macvan Map 21st and 22nd editions show it as Poinsettia Drive. If in fact it is Poinsetta Drive, did someone originally misspell it or what?
- Rusty Johnson

ANSWER: Either the Cragmor developer or the city department that recorded the name in the mid-1960s registered it as Poinsetta and it became official.
Until the mid-1980s, when developers named the streets as they platted their developments, they sometimes misspelled them — accidentally or on purpose.
There were times the names were recorded incorrectly and in other cases they were spelled wrong on the street signs and never changed. Whatever the spelling, that became the street’s name.

Then the city revised its ordinance to simplify the naming process, eliminate duplications and correct spellings.

Why not just change Poinsetta, you might wonder. First, it’s history. In addition, property owners on Poinsetta would have to agree that it should be changed, and the agency (planning, police, fire, post office, etc.) requesting the corrected spelling must pay for it.

Apparently a lot of people have a poinsettia problem, because Google lists 131,000 entries for people spelling it “poinsetta,” the way many people pronounce it.

Fondly remembering those Cheese Frenchies

CHEESE FRENCHIES: Back in the late 1960s or early 1970s there was a restaurant down the street on Nevada from Palmer High School named Kings Host. Does anyone have the recipe for the Cheese Frenchies they used to serve?
- Shirley Tilkens

ANSWER: Since King’s Food Host is no longer around, we turned to several Internet sites that deal with restaurant recipes. There were several great discussions about how much people loved the “Frenchies” at King’s across the country, including Cheese Frenchies, Tuna Frenchies and even Hot Dog Frenchies.

From recipelink.com is this version:

KING’S FOOD HOST’S CHEESE FRENCHIES
6 slices white bread
6 slices American cheese
Mayonnaise
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
Kellogg’s Corn Flake crumbs
Oil for deep fat frying

Recipe note: “American cheese is a must. Do not use any other kind, as it melts too easily.

Procedure:
1. Make 3 sandwiches, using 2 slices of American Cheese per sandwich. Spread mayonnaise on bread slices. Cut sandwiches into triangles.
2. Combine egg, milk, flour and salt. Dip the triangle sandwiches into egg mixture, and coat with corn flake crumbs.
3. Fry in deep fat at 375 degrees until golden.

Deputies provide security at the bus terminal

BUS STATION DEPUTIES: At the downtown bus terminal last Friday afternoon, there was a uniformed El Paso County Sheriff’s deputy on duty. Why is the Sheriff, and not the Colorado Springs Police Department, providing the law enforcement presence in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs?
- J.T.

ANSWER: The bus system, Mountain Metropolitan Transit (Mountain Metro), contracts with the sheriff’s office to provide security at the downtown bus depot during certain parts of the day, according to Sgt. Jim Groth. “It’s extra duty performed by our deputies. It’s a contract, not a jurisdictional issue,” Groth said.

Both the sheriff’s office and the police department have extra-duty offices. One of the extra duties performed by the police, Groth said, is funeral escorts that are contracted by funeral homes. Police who direct traffic on Sundays outside large churches are also extra-duty officers under contract.