These city slogans are a mouthful of something Yes, you can be 'Always Turned On' in 'The City That Never Sleeps'

Some 80 years before Plymouth Rock, Spanish explorers in 1540 set foot in this sunbathed land, observed low-hanging clouds from Native American cooking fires and instinctively said the Spanish word for smoke: “Yuma.” Their offhand meteorological observation laid the foundation for centuries of low jokes. “Some people didn’t like the slogan so it’s no longer official,” says Ann Walker of www.visityuma.com. “But it still pops up because lots of people will always enjoy  a really good, cheesy pun.” Check out the once-fearsome Yuma Territorial Prison (1876-1909), now a state historical site, and festivals such as Yuma Lettuce Days, March 11-13, that pay homage to $3 billion in agricultural interests in a land graced with a whopping 350 days of sunshine. And take it easy on the jokes. Just because they have naturally sunny dispositions doesn’t mean their feelings can’t be hurt. After all, they’re only Yuman.

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Jay Janner  /  AP file

The Capitol dome looms over a patch of bluebonnets in Austin, Texas.

It’s not difficult to imagine the sort of army that would muster on behalf of this cause. Their uniforms would be tie-dye, not camo. They’d be armed with guitars, not guns. And they’d offer peace pipes with such friendly persistence those determined to make Austin normal would disband in fits of of giggling distraction. “Tell people you’re from Texas and they think, conservative Red State,” says Roy Benear of the Austin CVB (www.austintexas.org). “You get a whole different vibe when you tell them Austin. Everyone thinks Austin’s cool.” The phrase took off  after local Red Wassenich explained on-air why he was donating to oddball radio program, “The Lounge Show,” on KOOP-FM: The show, he said, “helps keep Austin weird.” Ten years later, Wassenich’s humble and heartfelt proclamation is still a rallying cry for those eager to make aberrant behavior seem like a civic duty. Careful, Austin. Someday soon California’s going to want you back.

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  Albuquerque, N.M.: 'It’s A Trip'
  

Jay Blackwood / Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau

Sandia Peak Tram in Albuquerque, N.M.

Maybe the most potent promotional use of eight letters in marketing history. Straight-arrow nostalgics will associate it with vehicular traffic along old Route 66 that cuts right through town. And the Sandia Peak Tramway is a wonderful little trip up a scenic mountain. Yet, “trip” also has subversive meanings popular with people who enjoy reciting lines from movies like “The Big Lebowski.” “Albuquerque is a creative place where people can escape to and enjoy a whole new reality,” says Megan Mayo of the Albuquerque CVB (www.itsatrip.org). “And that’s just what our little slogan conveys.” But dining at places such as the famed El Pinto Restaurant & Cantina, enjoying any of Albuquerque’s 19 museums, or its splendid resorts means a trip to Albuquerque can still be really down-to-earth fun — even when you’re floating hundreds of feet above it. The Albuquerque International Balloon Festival, Oct. 1-9, is world renown.

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  Hershey, Pa.: 'The Sweetest Place on Earth'
  

AP file