{"id":14555,"date":"2014-01-16T19:36:06","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T00:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=14555"},"modified":"2021-11-24T14:36:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T19:36:33","slug":"just-as-enigmatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/just-as-enigmatic\/","title":{"rendered":"Just as Enigmatic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why? Because. Why Not? I dunno. It’s a puzzle. It’s a riddle.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I unearthed an Enigma<\/a> and I discovered a Paradox<\/a>. Then I decided to have a little fun with a few more place names along a similar vein. Many of them defied explanation and remained enigmatic. They can still be enjoyed simply for their unusual names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Ken<\/a>
The Question at Hand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why? Good question. That’s exactly what I wondered when I encountered the Town of Why in Arizona (map<\/a>). Search engines did their best to answer the query often in unexpected ways. One branch led to the website why.az<\/a> which dealt with the question generically rather than leading to the town specifically. I parsed the source code just because I was curious and found a comment hidden within: “Why did we do it? Why the hell not?<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was cute although it didn’t answer the question. Wikipedia tried its best<\/a> albeit without any attribution or source citation. The explanation may or may not be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The unusual name of the town comes from the fact that the two major highways, State Routes 85 and 86, originally intersected in a Y-intersection. At the time of its naming, Arizona law required all city names to have at least three letters, so the town’s founders named the town “Why” as opposed to simply calling it ‘Y.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Why? Because<\/h2>\n\n\n\n