Month: October 2012
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Captain Thunderbolt
Captain Thunderbolt, despite a name seemingly custom-designed for a comic book, was not a superhero. He certainly couldn’t stop bullets from penetrating his chest. I went in search of places named for “Captains Less Prestigious” recently. The effort intended to find memorable places associated with second-tier captains who never achieved the same level of fame…
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Batten Down the Hatches
I’ve been familiar with the phrase “Batten Down the Hatches” for so long that I can’t even recall when I first heard it. I’ve always understood it to derive from a nautical origin. However, in current usage it seems to mean a more general effort to prepare for the worst. One would want to cover…
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Canada to Mexico
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Google Maps changes its algorithms periodically. Times and distances were correct when published in 2012; they have changed in the meantime] The Twelve Mile Circle continues to generate all sorts of interesting search engine queries, an endless stream of potential article topics. I remember back in the early days of the blog I…
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Gephyrophobia
Gephyrophobia is a fear of bridges. People who experience this anxiety are gephyrophobiacs. I’ve known people with this fear to varying degrees although I didn’t realize it had an actual name until recently. I noticed a search engine query on Twelve Mile Circle from someone who appeared to be a gephyrophobiac. The person wanted to…
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Ferry from Maryland to Virginia
It’s time to provide another Public Service Announcement. These are Twelve Mile Circle articles that answer burning questions from one-time visitors in the general public that may not appeal to the regular audience. I’ll talk about maps, transportation and a little about history that may interest a localized segment of readers. Feel free to continue…
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Longest Distance in an Hour
It’s the easy questions that seem to be the most difficult to answer sometimes. The search engine query captured in my web logs appeared to be a simple affair. “What is the longest distance someone can drive in an hour.” I figured the answer would probably be the portions of the Autobahn in Germany that…
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Big Zero
I noticed something I hadn’t seen before as I gazed upon a map of the Canada – United States border. Well, maybe I’d noticed it before although it must not have registered at the time if that’s the case. What? You don’t stare at maps of the border? It’s one of my fixations. I’ve learned…
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Capitals on Edge
An interesting query came onto the site the other day. I hadn’t really thought about it previously so I decided to give it some thought and figure it. The essence of the question centered on the number of national capitals abutting international borders. It’s a situation where one hopes the nation has good relations with…