Twelve Mile Circle – An Appreciation of Unusual Places

Twelve Mile Circle

  • 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…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 5 (In the Middle)

    We cut north into Kentucky’s central interior, into the outer rings of the Bluegrass Region. Or into the Knobs Region. Or perhaps into some other distinct geographic designation. The territory fell across several distinct regions or maybe no region at all. Here we sat at a crossroad amongst regions or perhaps into our own Kentucky…

  • Kentucky Adventure, Part 4 (Power of Water)

    I noticed a common theme intertwined with water as we explored the southern tier of Kentucky, from Lake Cumberland to Mammoth Cave: water as an historical and modern source of power; water as a recreational activity; water as an obstacle and water as a force of nature. The Cumberland River and the Green River, both…

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  2. what is the total population that lives now in the land given back to Virginia should it be part of…

  5. Park ranger at Chalmette (New Orleans) Battlefield let me pull up the Union Jack 20 years ago. My dad would…