In your neck of the woods, what is/was the going term for a notional remote location? The more silly and specific, the better.
There was an officemate in CT (1990s) fond of "East Bumfuck, Iowa" (a state I wouldn't choose, since I have family there; it's a nice state). Presumably downtown Bumfuck would be a decent city, perhaps with a college, a nice riverfront, farmers' markets and a minor league baseball team; but East Bumfuck, with just two county roads and a dollar store, was the place to call out.
I always heard "BFE," an acronym of "Butt-F*** Egypt." I don't know how widespread that is.
I use "East Mudpuddle" myself.
In rural West Virginia, the "middle of nowhere" was referred to as "Outer Wachovia", but we didn't (or couldn't) pronounce that word correctly. Hoopies say "watch-cho-vee-yah" instead of the Moravian "wock-koh-vee-yah". People would say "Your folks are gonna send you to Outer Wachovia", but I seriously doubt that anyone was planning to send them to northern Forsyth County, North Carolina, nor was this meant to be cruise up the Danube River. Instead, the term was used just like the Soviets would mention Outer Mongolia or Siberia.
By the way, all of you mispronounced most of the words in "Your folks are gonna send you to Outer Wachovia", which in deep Appalachian dialect is "yeer fohkssuh arth gun-nuh sen-jew tooh...".
EDIT: Oops. I said "all of you" when this was a good instance where West Virginia folks say "all you'all".
BFE out here. It's not widespread, but I often use "Saudi Aurora" to describe where I live to my friends who live in Central Denver.
Quote from: wanderer2575 on August 29, 2024, 12:03:57 PMI always heard "BFE," an acronym of "Butt-F*** Egypt." I don't know how widespread that is.
Well, it appears in the lyrics to
Up Down by Morgan Wallen, so it's probably pretty widespread now if it wasn't already.
A less coarse one that I hear quite a bit and therefore tend to use is "out in the sticks".
Outer Bejeezus
Around here, the B in BFE stands for "Bum," not "Butt."
For me it's just that, en medio de la nada in Spanish.
The boonies
Farm/corn country
In French, "le millieu de nulle part" (a literal translation) works.
I've seen Saint-Néant (literally Saint Nothing), after the François Pérusse song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnjrEeiLI7I), being used.
Over in my hometown, "le fin fond de l'Étang-des-Caps" (the deepest reaches of l'Étang-des-Caps, a neighborhood in Havre-Aubert) has been used to refer to remote places.
I often hear "we are near the fucking cows" as a way to describe rural San Joaquin Valley. Irony being that this seems to derive from smell of farm fertilizer rather than any large nearby cattle ranch.
I remember one time when I was really young my dad was mad because some exit ramp on what is now I-240 (at the time it wasn't even OK-152) was closed and the detour was going to make us have to drive "to Timbuktu". Except I was a little kid who wasn't up on African geography, so I thought he said "Ten Buck Two", and I remember looking out the window for the sign. I thought it was really weird that there was a place called Ten Buck, much less that there were two of them.
I've mostly heard "East B.F." (where it was understood what B.F. stood for). If it was paired with a state, it was usually Arkansas. Apologies to any Arkansas residents :)
Quote from: dlsterner on August 30, 2024, 08:05:45 PMI've mostly heard "East B.F." (where it was understood what B.F. stood for).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_Flat,_Oklahoma obviously.
Quote from: Scott5114 on August 30, 2024, 10:49:28 PMQuote from: dlsterner on August 30, 2024, 08:05:45 PMI've mostly heard "East B.F." (where it was understood what B.F. stood for).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_Flat,_Oklahoma obviously.
Love it! "Burns Flat, Oklahoma" sounds even sketchier than "East Buttf**k, Arkansas".
For me, Bumf*** or East Bumf***, Egypt are my favorites, though "sticks", "boonies", "boondocks" and "podunk" are also common.
butt-fucking nowhere or "BF Nowhere" in polite company
the sticks
hinterlands
hayseed
jerk-water