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A little help, if you could be so kind; that is, if you don’t mind [1]
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Date: 2025-01-30
Every once in a while I get stumped. Well, that once-in-a-while time has arrived. I’m stumped. And, I could use some help.
When I share with you what I’m stumped about, try to contain your laughter, okay?
So, what is it I’m flummoxed about? Map names. Confused? Yeah, me too.
On the map
I’ll start with Eureka. There are at least three towns named Eureka that I know about: Eureka, California. Eureka, Nevada. Eureka, Utah.
Okay. So why any town would agree to adopt Eureka as a name is confounding, meaning, it’s beyond me. Eureka, by the way, means “I found it.” Okay, so we know the “what”. But “Eureka,” in and of itself, doesn’t tell us by “whom”. Harpers Ferry was most likely founded by a bloke with last name Harper. (To Eurekans, my deepest apologies, whom, as I see it, I’m sure can’t be too terribly excited about my going on about this. Ah, but I digress).
Okay, next. The Pass’s. Grants Pass. El Paso, which is Spanish for “The Pass” as in El Paso De Robles or Robles Pass. Excuse me, but how can a city be a city and at the same time also be a “pass”? What are these cities supposedly passes to anyway? Other cities? In your trying to answer that, you might just want to pass on it.
So, circa 1977, a friend and I were traveling from Baltimore to Boston and return. In Upstate New York — the only place I know that adopted the word Upstate as a term for a specific location — we arrived in the town of White Plains. While traveling on a major thoroughfare there, it wasn’t long before we spotted a road sign with the words “No White Plains” on it. Talk about a conversation starter. You can well imagine.
Then there’s the town of George in Washington State. Word to the wise on that one. Don’t get me started.
And last but not least, which, in this case, I believe is highly fitting. I’m talking here about the California desert-based community of Zzyzx. Zzyzx? Really. I was tempted to say it, you know, this being a sleepy little town. On second thought? I’ll have you know I’m not going there and that’s where I’ll leave it.
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