ManchVegas

I've been working on a follow-up post to the polling obsession illness that is at epidemic rates, but for some reason I just got tired of it and decided to move on. I recommend all the campaigns, the press, and my fellow bloggers do the same. It's very cathartic.

Then I ran across this info on Facebook (someone's profile or group, who knows) which seemed like a much better post to share on such a beautiful New Hampshire day:

From Wikipedia: ManchVegas (also Manch-Vegas) is a local nickname for Manchester, NH, used especially by young people. The term is a portmanteau of Manchester and Las Vegas. "ManchVegas" was derived from illegal gambling in local businesses during the late 1980s or early '90s. Many pizza shops and local bars had video poker machines that would pay out real money. Following a city-wide bust of these machines, brothers Jim and Bill O'Mahony of Manchester coined the nickname. It was then adopted as a lampoon of the city's limited entertainment opportunities.

A 2003 note on Virtualtourist.com notes, "Residents reflect the regional dry humor by referring to sedate Manchester as 'ManchVegas'." ...As of January, 2006, nine businesses in New Hampshire had registered with the New Hampshire Secretary of State's Corporate Division to use the name "ManchVegas" in their business. The earliest was registered August 11, 1998. The term is used on the Internet, especially on message boards such as MySpace.

Mystery solved. Now I know.