Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Author: Twelve Mile Circle

  • Make a Bee Line

    I noticed an historical record that mentioned a late 19th Century railroad, the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway. That’s not what interested me though, it was the railroad’s nickname, the “Bee Line” What a wonderful name for a railway. I considered it a nice play on words aligning with the idiom “to make a…

  • Once a Capital

    It must be depressing I considered, to live in a former capital city. Once it served as the centerpiece of a sovereign nation, a focus of governance, a diplomatic hub, and now maybe only a provincial power or possibly much worse. I wondered what the saddest case might be, the one that fell the farthest…

  • Comedy Duos

    It may be reasonable to assume that most people have at least a passing familiarity with Abbott and Costello’s signature Who’s-on-First comedy routine, developed in the late 1930’s. I referenced a possible Who’s-on-First scenario recently in No Way! Way! thinking that most readers would understand the reference. It came from an era long before I…

  • Yankee Doodle Dunce

    My recent long weekend at the in-laws provided plenty of downtime, which is a good thing. However, I’m also one of those people who has to do something at all times. Luckily they always have a stack of magazines — remember those quaint periodic booklets printed on actual paper? And I had plenty of time…

  • Loess

    What do Council Bluffs, Iowa, the Battle of Vicksburg and the Yellow River all have in common? Loess. Loess comes from the German löß, and has a common root with the English word, loose. This geological term describes a light silty dust blown by the wind that accumulates into thick layers and hills. These deposits,…

  • Odds and Ends 8

    I have a slew of short topics not befitting an entire article on their own. That means it’s time for another installment of Odds and Ends. Non-Native English Readers of 12MC Twelve Mile Circle receives a robust amount of website traffic from readers in nations where English is neither a predominant nor an official language.…

  • Tombolo(s) of Connecticut

    I have an odd affinity for tombolos. I don’t know why. It’s completely irrational. Even one of the earliest Twelve Mile Circle articles focused on the phenomenon. I’ll stick with a definition I drafted back then and quote myself. “A Tombolo is a narrow neck of land that forms between the mainland and an island,…

  • Oxbows in Africa

    I’m sensitive to the frequency of 12MC article pushpins that increase exponentially as one gets closer to my approximate home. I write about what I know best, and geographic distance permeates that equation. That leaves many areas of the earth underserved and creates a vicious circle. Residents of those places don’t hit the Twelve Mile…

  • No Way! Way!

    I noticed high-quality reader input on the recent He Went Thata Way article. I never imagined that there were so many creative Ways to approach the situation and it proved to me that I might be able to mine additional road name gold. I’d have said “No Way” while the 12MC audience responded “Way” and…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 6 (And the Rest)

    All good things come to an end and before long our Kentucky adventure approached its natural conclusion. It was time to return home. I still had some parting opportunities as I left the state and then again as we steered through West Virginia towards the Mid Atlantic. East Wasn’t East Long ago in the early…