Tag: Saskatchewan
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Surprise!
A visitor landed on Twelve Mile Circle from Surprise. That was the actual name of the town; Surprise, Arizona. Maybe it shouldn’t have surprised me. More than a hundred thousand people lived there, yet I’d never heard of it. I also learned during my search that Surprise was a surprisingly common designation. Some 238 surprises…
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Directional Upstart Eclipses Namesake
Loyal reader Cary suggested an article idea that built upon a previous topic, Upstart Eclipses Namesake. In that previous posting I offered “new” places that grew more prominent than their original namesakes. Examples I proposed included New Zealand (vs. Zealand), New South Wales (vs. South Wales) and others. There were several comments and a lively…
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Snipp, Snapp, Snorum, Hej Basalorum
I don’t think I’ve ever milked three articles from a single small town before. So Earl Grey, a village in Saskatchewan struck the trifecta once I considered it’s origin. I’d mentioned in the previous article that one source said, “the district was then known as Snorum.” Did anyone else find that amusing? Snorum. It sounded…
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Earl Grey
The 12MC audience anticipated my next move again. It was “The Basement Geographer” this time. He flagged British prime minister Earl Grey and the Grey Cup in a comment responding to Gray vs. Grey. So I will cover that along with other topics today. I knew that could be a risk when I mentioned the…
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Gray vs. Grey
I’ve always had a terrible time remembering how to spell a certain word. It’s the one that describes a mixture of black and white. Should it be gray or grey? In a sense I understood that it depends upon geography. The adoption of simplified spelling in the United States through the efforts of people like…
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Boomerang
The trails and breadcrumbs left behind by random one-time electronic visitors sometimes remind me of interesting things I’ve discussed previously and forgotten. Witness the recent query “boomerang” that led one anonymous reader to Fraser Island in Australia, the world’s largest sand island, and its amazing perched dune lakes. As I noted when I drafted the…
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Portage in Canada
The United States Geological Survey is a Federal government agency. It has been impacted by the government budget impasse that exists as I write this article in October 2013. Guess what? It also means that the Geographical Names Information System was turned off. Only websites “necessary to protect lives and property” are running at the…
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Airports Named after Fictional Characters
Every once in awhile I post an article not necessarily for the 12MC audience, intended more as a public service to people who might come to the site for a highly specific purpose only a single time. I’m not always sure why I receive sudden website traffic surges, however I try to be accommodating. Often…
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Impressive Pedestrian Bridges
Plans change. I gamble when I choose to mull over a thought and allow it to percolate in my mind. Sometimes the delay results in a better article. Other times, events overtake ideas not completely formed yet. Loyal reader “Rhodent” and I were communicating by email about a potential offshoot of “NOT as the Crow…
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Extreme Reservations
It started out as it often does through a chance encounter with a roadmap anomaly. I happened to be examining a stretch of highway online. Then I spied an uncharacteristically wide split between the westbound and eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 directly outside of Pendleton, Oregon. It seemed quite remarkable. A mountain ridge forced opposing…