Talk:Worcester, Massachusetts

The Worcester slogan

A.) Unless it's changed (should still have something like 25 years as the slogan I know) it should read "Worcester, the Heartbeat of Massachusetts".
B.) The slogan's source was a city-wide submission from school students. Each class of students came up with individual slogans, than voted on the winner and submitted a single slogan as a class to the city. My submission was the one chosen by my class, and my class, 3rd grade lake view school, won the competition. We had interviews and sang the anthem at a wildcats game.
C. Perhaps the notes currently in the article are correct for why the slogan was /chosen/, but as the literal creator, we had talked about how human hearts are slightly off center the previous week, similar to Worcester's location relative to Massachusetts, and we were talking about beats in music that week. A portmanteau of heart and beat, which was already another word, and simple.

I'm not sure much of this at all needs to go into the article, but what is currently there should be reworded to "selecting" "picking" or "choosing" the slogan, as I've outlined the literal creative process above.

The competition was done in 1997, print media was a thing but the new york times had not purchased (and then later shut down) the Telegram so I don't know how to cite this (I'd assume nyt would try to upload old print media to continue to stay relevant). As I mentioned, if someone is able to research this (I don't live in the area anymore), look for articles in the fall about the 3rd grade class of lake view school (the teachers name was hard to remember then, much less 20+ years later) in the Worcester Telegram. Amzcz (talk) 02:33, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I'm not sure what specific change you're proposing, but "The Heartbeat of the Commonwealth" is one of the nicknames provided in the infobox. -- Calidum 02:57, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

I can't decide how or where (certainly not in the lede) to incorporate this into the article (expanding on this slogan probably means we should have text expanding on other slogans/nicknames as well ... Paris of the 80s and Wormtown come to mind), but for what it's worth, I found the newspaper article you're looking for. It's "WORCESTER SET TO MARK 150 YEARS," by John J. Monahan, Telegram & Gazette, Dec. 18, 1997, page A1. Excerpts follow:

WORCESTER - The credit goes to then third-graders at Lake View School who came up with the slogan for the city's yearlong 150th anniversary celebration.

Appearing in the city's official colors of green, red and gold, the phrase - "Worcester, the Heartbeat of Massachusetts" - soon will be visible throughout the city. It will be seen on banners, signs and souvenirs marking Worcester's celebration of its history. [...]

Mark Berthiaume, principal at Lake View, said pupils who came up with the motto, now fourth-graders, are excited that it's become an official part of the celebration.

The pupils worked on the project in teacher Flora Kasparian's class last year. After some "brainstorming," Berthiaume said, they submitted just the one slogan. "They never figured that they would win, but they did."

"Worcester, the Heartbeat of Massachusetts" was selected from nearly 1,000 slogans submitted by city students. [...]

By the way, the T&G hasn't been shut down (yet). NYT sold it to GateHouse/Gannett, and it's not as thick as you remember from the 1990s, but print media still is a thing in Central Mass. _``` t b w i l l i e _{`</sub> $1.25 <sub>`} 03:59, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Mrs K, that's the one. Thanks for finding that, I don't really mind or have much of a useful opinion on the actual changes. I'm just happy that it's documented here. Ah, I thought they shut down, I knew some people that had been let go.

Much appreciated! Amzcz (talk) 20:21, 4 October 2020 (UTC)

Additonal Sources

Noticed the additional sources tag added by @MurrayGreshler, which part of the article needs additional sources? TheManInTheBlackHat (Talk) 16:42, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

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Pronunciation, origin?

Perhaps a stupid question, but could someone make some addition to the article that might explain how people get 'wuster' out of Worcester? I imagine there's a reason? I understand that it's named after a city by the same name in England, presumably with a similar different-than-expected pronunciation, but still, why? I see that it's 'mentioned' under culture, but not really explained? UnderEducatedGeezer (talk) 09:31, 7 November 2024 (UTC)