[ti:WORDS AND THEIR STORIESNicknames for New Orleans and Las Vegas] [ar:Barbara Klein] [al:WORDS AND THEIR STORIES] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]Now, the VOA Special English program [00:14.14]WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. [00:17.03]Many cities have [00:18.89]interesting nicknames. [00:21.23]Nicknames can help [00:22.59]establish the identity of a city. [00:25.63]They can also spread pride [00:28.03]among its citizens. [00:29.70]New Orleans, Louisiana [00:32.75]probably has more nicknames [00:35.19]than any other American city. [00:38.29]One web site lists [00:40.53]more than twenty nicknames. [00:42.90]The most famous is The Big Easy. [00:46.88]It describes the gentle, [00:49.08]slow and easy-going way [00:51.78]of life in New Orleans. [00:54.26]So how did the city [00:56.01]get this nickname? [00:57.45]In the early nineteen hundreds, [01:00.49]there was a dance hall [01:02.44]in New Orleans called The Big Easy. [01:05.68]But the nickname did not [01:07.62]become famous until the [01:09.76]early nineteen seventies. [01:12.15]That was when a Louisiana [01:14.34]newspaper writer began calling [01:17.04]New Orleans by this name. [01:19.68]She compared the easy-going [01:22.37]way of life there [01:23.82]to the hurried pace [01:25.78]of life in New York City. [01:28.21]In nineteen seventy, [01:30.45]James Conaway wrote a crime novel [01:33.54]called "The Big Easy." [01:35.68]The story was set in New Orleans. [01:39.36]In nineteen eighty-seven, [01:41.77]that book was made into a film [01:44.93]which made the nickname [01:46.63]even more popular. [01:49.18]New Orleans has other nicknames. [01:51.66]One of them is The Crescent City. [01:55.40]During the nineteenth century, [01:58.13]new neighborhoods expanded out [02:01.34]from what is now known [02:03.28]as the French Quarter. [02:05.52]These areas followed the great curve [02:09.15]of the Mississippi River, [02:11.24]giving New Orleans the shape of a crescent. [02:15.22]Another nickname is the Birthplace [02:19.00]of Jazz because that kind of music [02:22.39]started in New Orleans. [02:25.04]It is also called Mardi Gras City [02:28.24]for the wild celebrations and parades [02:31.97]that take place there every year. [02:34.81]And, there is a nickname that [02:37.57]uses the short way to write [02:40.25] New Orleans and Louisiana. [02:43.18]It you do not want to [02:45.37]use the complete name, [02:47.17]you can call the city NOLA. [02:50.35]One of America's most exciting cities [02:54.24]is Las Vegas, Nevada. [02:57.27]There you can play games [02:59.78]of chance all night long. [03:02.62]The city's night clubs [03:04.71]are also open all night for eating, [03:08.29]drinking and dancing. [03:10.78]So it is not surprising that [03:13.98]Las Vegas is called The Gambling [03:16.81]Capital of the World and [03:19.31]The Entertainment Capital of the World. [03:22.69]Another nickname for Las Vegas [03:26.08]is Sin City because you can [03:29.17]find many kinds of adult [03:31.97]entertainment there. [03:33.76]Many people who come [03:35.80]to Las Vegas in hopes of winning [03:38.59]lots of money do not know when [03:41.78]to stop gambling. [03:43.83]They may lose a great deal [03:46.23]of their hard-earned money. [03:48.08]So the city is also called [03:51.17]something that sounds [03:53.02]like Las Vegas ¨C Lost Wages. [03:57.07]In nineteen sixty-four, [03:59.97]Elvis Presley starred [04:02.21]in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas." [04:05.74]Here he sings the title song [04:08.49]from that movie. [04:09.95](MUSIC) [04:40.77]This program was written [04:42.46]by Shelley Gollust. [04:44.15]I'm Barbara Klein.