Scrantonicity… “Koi Pond”
While Michael Scott was falling into a koi pond, Pam and Andy were busy making cold sales calls at the “Wilkes-Barre Industrial Park.” Scranton and Wilkes-Barre are “twin cities” in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Their relationship is similar to other famous “twin cities,” like Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco-Oakland, and Hooterville-Crabwell Corners. We who are from Scranton say “Scranton/Wilkes Barre.” Folks from Wilkes-Barre refer to “Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.” They pretend not to care that Scranton was picked as the home of the Dunder-Mifflin branch. 
The lithograph of the Erie-Lackawanna railroad car was again prominently featured on the wall in Jim Halpert’s office. You can view the railroad print here. It’s available for purchase, as a fund-raiser for LITO-ite Tim’s railroad preservation society. Once the funds are all raised, I hope LITO can publish a picture of Tim holding an oversized check. That’s just so… “Office-y,” isn’t it? 
Another Scranton reference goes all the way back to the “Niagara” episode. I read this trivia on Wikipedia, which is the best thing ever. During the wedding banquet scene, a bottle of Yuengling beer is visible on a table. Now, we here at LITO love our Yuenglings… how did we all miss that? 
~Bob
November 2nd, 2009 14:25
I completely missed the Yuenglings Bob! How, now I say, HOW did that happen?!? ha ha Probably drinking too much Yuengling!
I didn’t know about the Scranton/Wilkes Barre rivalry. That must really stick in the Wilkes Barre crowd’s craw that The Office became so famous, dragging Scranton along with them. Anyone reading this from Wilkes Barre want to comment on that?
May 5th, 2010 20:01
Here’s an interesting question to pose: from those of us who have heard of it, how do you pronounce it? “Wilkes Bear” “Wilkes Berry” or “Wilkes beara” =) For me, “Wilkes Bear”