>at which point the larval human
>employee gave me the sort of look they reserve for old people whom
>they consider very stupid and/or deliberately being a problem and said
>with exaggerated understanding, "OH! You want a cruSANT," rhyming
>with "plant".

......wut.

......who....how could that even happen? In what accent does "croissant" even...GAH.

You, sir, just hurt my mind.

>
>As for Spanish place names, when I worked at Leading Edge I would
>routinely startle callers from the Southwest by pronouncing the names
>of their streets and towns more or less right when reading them back
>out of the registered-warranties database. Three years of high school
>Spanish, you know. Also, "Tujunga Canyon" is just fun to say.
>TuHUNNNNgaaahhh. Boca RRRRRRATón. RRRRRRRANcho
>CucaMONgaaaaaaaa.
>

Listening to traffic reports is pretty fun around the LA area for that reason--you can tell that some of the reporters actually do have fun with the names.

Also, it's a great way to keep a mental map of the LA freeway system in your head--it may not be The Knowledge, but it's non-trivial and very enabling.