Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Category: Distance

  • Intertwining Threads

    I’m predisposed to look for patterns and there are times when they come together better than others. This is one of those times although it may seem to have a bit of a stream-of-consciousness feel to it. Heading to San Diego I left for Dulles Airport on Monday morning for a week of work in…

  • Mistaken Identity, Part 3

    I’ve called the final installment of my series on geographic mistaken identities, Baltimore, DC. A couple of comments on the earlier articles referenced people making the wrong assumptions about airports. This is another instance of that phenomenon so I won’t dwell on it for long. Instead I’ll keep it short. That way I have room…

  • Mistaken Identity, Part 2

    I call the second case of mistaken geographic identity the “Invasion of a Maryland Beach Town!” This instance of mistaken geography happened long before my birth, and all the way back in 1941. It became Howder family legend. And it will undoubtedly pass along to our progeny for generations to come. Some families bestow royal…

  • One Flew Over the Void

    International borders serve as fodder for a frequently recurring topic on Twelve Mile Circle. I’ve written about borders in tunnels, borders across islands, and borders creating odd exclaves. I’ve even discussed a border that I crossed of somewhat dubious legality. However none of those approach the epic heights of one particularly noteworthy border crossing that…

  • International Latitude Observatories

    I came across an interesting building while researching the Gaithersburg Doughnut Hole a few months ago. It’s just to the east of the hole by a couple of streets, so more accurately it’s just barely on the doughnut, perhaps it’s a coconut sprinkle. Here’s how it appears in a public domain photograph: It looks rather…

  • Celebrate the Day Twice

    As happens frequently here, I noticed an interesting phrase deposited by a search engine in my web traffic logs. The gist of the query — from an unknown but curious user — seemed straightforward enough. Could someone celebrate a birthday twice by crossing the International Date Line? Yes, it’s absolutely possible. There must be any…

  • English Whitewater

    Speaking of clapper bridges… we were talking about clapper bridges, right? They’re not all confined to Devonshire. The Tarr Steps clapper bridge is a notable exception located in Somerset at Exmoor National Park. Unlike the clapper bridges of Devon that date primarily from the middle ages and later eras, the Tarr Steps clapper may date…

  • Potomac in Oregon

    Is there a Potomac River in Oregon? I’m only aware of the one that forms a boundary between Virginia and Maryland/Washington, DC and out to West Virginia. However, I’ve been receiving a slow but steady trickle of search engine queries on the topic for the last several weeks. Maybe I’m missing something. Is there a…

  • 12 Mile Circ… no wait, 16!

    [UPDATE: 16 Mile Brewing Company CLOSED in September 2018] Look at the bottle my wife brought home from the grocery store a few days ago. Can you see the name of the brewery on the bottle? That’s the 16 Mile Brewing Company. More importantly, the brewery is located in Delaware. Now, I’ve heard of a…

  • What’s “Almost Heaven?”

    We examined a song containing a blatant geographic inaccuracy in a recent article, “In Them Old Cotton Fields.” I left a hint for readers when I stated that I too took offense at a song with an equally irritating error, one having to do with the Mountain State. Many of you probably knew the answer…