Month: October 2009
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Black Loyalists
I came across an article recently with the curious title, 10 Things About Canada I Didn’t Know, and indeed I learned ten new things too. I found the third fact on the list the most interesting. It claimed: “Shelburne, Nova Scotia is said to have been the fourth-largest town in North America at one point…
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Reaching Out to Africa
I’ve been tracking the countries of origin of Twelve Mile Circle visitors for nearly two years. That shouldn’t be entirely surprising for a website that relies upon geographic content as its primary reason for existence. I’ve reported before that one of my goals is to collect at least one visitor from every country, filling in…
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World’s Longest Golf Course
Nullarbor Links, the “World’s Longest Golf Course” officially commenced operations with an inaugural tournament and an opening tee off on October 22. It expects to run through October 27, 2009, with a closing dinner in Kalgoorlie. Western Australia. What makes this the longest? Its eighteen holes stretch along a 1,365 kilometres (848 miles) route through…
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Smoots Revisited
I’m still in Boston and I found my way over to the Harvard Bridge across the Charles River, connecting the Back Bay of Boston to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Nobody calls it a particularly remarkable bridge as far as those things go, but it does offer amazing views when the weather cooperates.…
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Glorious Day for Flying
I got so excited about my walk through Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood that I got a little ahead of myself in the story. I should probably back up a bit. Let’s start with the airline flight that brought me to this wonderful spot along the Charles River. A nor’easter blew through last week bringing bitter…
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Vikings in Boston?
I’m in Boston, Massachusetts this week. Maybe I can satisfy my geo-weirdness fixation in between my all-day business meetings. Fortunately Boston has a compact core with several walkable neighborhoods and a great public transportation system. I had an opportunity to spend a couple of hours wandering around the Back Bay yesterday. This area used to…
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Colorado’s Remaining Corners
The United States’ Four Corners phenomenon in the desert southwest receives an inordinate amount of attention on Twelve Mile Circle. I don’t know exactly why. Perhaps it’s because it was one of the first places I ever visited simply because of its geo-weirdness. In fact, the fascination runs so deep that it extends to the…
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Only Rhode Island and Delaware are Smaller in Size than this State
It’s homework time again. Somewhere some geography teacher must be handing out a take-home quiz because I’m getting pinged with identical Google queries from multiple sources. They all read, “Only Rhode Island and Delaware are smaller in size than this state.” Regular readers should feel free to skip today’s article which I’m presenting as a…
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Sometimes North is South
Canada occupies such an amazingly large swath of upper North American that, understandably, one can overlook exactly how far south the country actually extends. The Province of Ontario contains its most southerly extremes: on the mainland at Point Pelee; on solid land at the edge of Middle Island; and on open water at an international…
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How Often Does This Get Stolen?
Roadway warnings in the United States are almost always feature yellowish diamond-shaped signs. They might convey information such as upcoming curves, steep grades, dangerous intersections, rock slide areas, deer crossing areas or various other things to watch out for as one drives along. I saw a rather unusual one as I researched my recent article…