Anything But That

Richard Reinhardt’s article on the 1939 San Francisco World’s Fair (May/June) is prefaced with: “New Yorkers recall 1939 as the year of the great World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow. But that’s just more Eastern provincialism.”

I now live in New York but am proud to say that I grew up in San Francisco. I hope that American Heritage realizes that the very listing of the piece on the cover of the magazine reflects the height of Eastern provincialism. No one—absolutely no one —west of the Mississippi calls San Francisco “Frisco.” Native Californians would approve your use of “San Fran,” “S.F.,” almost anything but that terrible “F” word. “Frisco” is a term used by the camera-toting, cigar-chomping, arrogant, thoroughly naive Easterner attending a convention in the Bay area.