Author: Twelve Mile Circle

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 90210: Myth and Reality

    Postal Codes in the United State known as “ZIP Codes” take on a whole variety of fascinating geographical dimensions totally unexplored thus far on Twelve Mile Circle. I can think of no better way to start than with what is arguably the most famous ZIP Code on the planet, one known widely throughout pop culture…

  • The Gauntlet has been Thrown

    Several weeks ago I toyed with an idea for a recurring topic. I would close my eyes, wiggle the cursor around on the screen, and drop it randomly onto a Google Street View map. I would oblige myself to write an article about the resulting spot regardless of where it fell and with no second…