Test Your Roc IQ

For some reason, Western New York likes its cities named after other countries. Rome, Amsterdam, Egypt, and Greece are all cities and counties in New York. And no, Amsterdam, NY, does not have the same drug laws as the real Amsterdam.

While deep-fried Oreos are sold at many local festivals, Rochester is one of the only places where you will find "white hots." The meat in these hotdogs is not smoked or cured, allowing it to retain a white color. Yes it sounds weird, but it is delicious.

Abbott's specialty is frozen custard, which is described as an extra soft and creamy frozen treat. This means that Abbott's is known for their high-quality frozen custard, which is made with a specific texture and consistency that sets it apart from other frozen desserts like gelato, frozen yogurt, and soft-serve flavors.

Wegmans is Rochester's life source. It is local, the people are pretty friendly, and you can find everything there. The Wegmans in Pittsford Plaza is enormous, and half of the store is devoted to prepared food like pizza, subs, even sushi. You can get a nice meal before you go shopping.

Forget everything you know about the word "charlotte." Here it is pronounced shar-lot. Don't ask why, just say it.

The Eastman School of Music is one of the top music schools in the country. Students come from all over the world to attend. The college offers many concerts throughout the year, many of them free of charge.

The Corn Hill neighborhood has nothing to do with the vegetable, but is famous for its new apartments and pretty houses. The Corn Hill Arts Festival takes place there every July.

Highland Park is famous for its lilacs that bloom every spring. Rochester holds its Lilac Festival in the park every May, featuring live music, food, and craft vendors.

Frederick Douglass was an escaped slave who became a prominent abolitionist, author, publisher, and orator. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, along with many other prominent Rochesterians.

The Genesee River flows north.

Bic, the company that makes everything from pens to lighters, is not from Rochester. Kodak was started in Rochester and earned us the nickname The Image City. Xerox and Paychex are also Rochester-born.

Rochester is famous for its greasy, delicious food. Many diners have their own version of the Garbage Plate, but the original came from Nick Tahoe's (320 W Main Street; 3070 W. Henrietta Road) and contains your choice of two hotdogs or hamburgers, French fries, macaroni salad or baked beans, smothered in hot sauce.

Susan B. Anthony is a big deal here. Seriously, my high school teacher dressed up as her for Halloween. Anthony was a major figure in the Women's Rights Movement, and her house on Madison Street has been preserved and turned into a museum.

The Strong National Museum of Play is definitely something to check out. It has a butterfly garden, lots of antique toys, massive interactive displays, a working old-school arcade, and yes, a miniature Wegmans that kids can shop at.

I really hope you said yes. If you said no, I am laughing at you. Go buy all of them immediately. Winter starts in late October around here, and the fall can be plenty cold and wet, too.

Winter will take up the most of your school year here. It usually gets cold way before Halloween, making it hard to dress in a skimpy nurse costume (although many co-eds manage to find a way to succeed). The snow lasts through March and sometimes even April, and it doesn't get warm until mid-May.

Rochester does have a jazz radio station, but it is Jazz 90.1 FM.

If you are new to Rochester, beware: do not order hot sauce if you are a vegetarian. Most of the hot sauce here is more like chili — it comes with ground beef. If you don't want meat in it, ask specifically for Tabasco sauce.

All of these nicknames are real. Rochester is famous for its lilacs and roses in Highland Park, and was once a major seed and plant producer, earning it the name Flower City. Rochester was also famous for its enormous flour mills that turned it into one of New York's first boomtowns. Smugtown was coined by the author G. Curtis Gerling in his book about Rochester's millionaires.

OK, so a hedgehog sports team sounds a bit ridiculous. The Rochester Rhinos is a very popular soccer team. The Red Wings is our baseball team, and the Armadillos (my personal favorite) is a local club rugby team.

Chad Michael Murray is from Buffalo, not Rochester. Kristen Wiig, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John Lithgow were all born or raised in Rochester or one of its suburbs.

If you haven't gotten it through your head by now, it snows here. A lot. We get around 95.8 inches in total snowfall each year. That is the second-highest average in the state.

News 12 is not a Rochester news station.

Rochester has 10 nearby colleges: University of Rochester, SUNY Brockport, SUNY Geneseo, Finger Lakes Community College, Monroe Community College, Rochester Institute of Technology, St. John Fisher , Nazareth College, Roberts Wesleyan College, and Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

We dropped the "ville" part back in the 1820s, shortly after the city's founding. Rochester is actually the sixth-cloudiest city in the United States, the highest recorded temperature is around 103 degrees, and it is the third-most-populated city in New York State.