BS: Oxymoron place names

Subject: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Bsondahl
Date: 16 Jun 03 - 11:45 PM

I just finished a trip across half of North America, and want to gripe about place names that clearly are self contradictory. The two I passed are Big Timber, Montana and Mountain Lake, Minnesota. Big Timber is surrounded by bare hills, and although there are trees in town, no big timber.
Mountain Lake, Minnesota, one would at least expect a lake in the state of 20,000 lakes, but in fact the lake was drained and planted to corn. No mountains within several hundred miles.

There are more examples. Every developer that names a subdivision, for example. Want specifics? Quail Run. Maybe they did when the developers got there, but not when they were done...

And then there's Los Angeles...

Any others?
Brad Sondahl
my home page

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Jun 03 - 11:54 PM

Riverview Street in Mills, Wyoming. We never could see the river from it. Our relatives came to visit, drove up and down the river looking for our house...several blocks over.

Great site, I could get lost in there for hours! Beautiful Mary Tood Lincoln!!

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 12:56 AM

Hrre on Stewart Island (NZ) we have a 'Deep Bay' that is anyuthing but. At low tide you can all-but walk to the entrance - guess it's 'deep' horizontally rather than vertically.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:54 AM

Mobile.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 07:22 AM

The nasty little estates round here(Cheshire,Staffordshire UK) are all called Badgers' Walk, Nightingale Close, Bishops Mews, Hawthorn Coppice etc etc. A likely story, as they say. Then there's the develoment on the canal near us with the notice "The Wharf: no mooring".
   I drove past a sign to Valley Hill the other day, which was more strictly oxymoronic. And the fact that you have to walk(or drive) up to get to the Downs in southern England must qualify.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: JennieG
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 07:31 AM

In the Bue Mountains, just west of Sydney, there is a place called Valley Heights.
I've never been able to work that one out.....
Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 07:44 AM

In County Durham there's a village called "No Place"

Wassail!

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 08:05 AM

My Uncle lived in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Only a Midwesterner could imagine that the garden of Eden was out on the Prairie. There is a town nearby that is named Purgatory...

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Wolfgang
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 08:29 AM

Amerika, a little village in Saxonia, Germany.

There's even a song about that place dwelling on that name:

                   Klein-Amerika im Muldental

                   Rings herum vom Wald umgeben,
                   liegt es still am Wasser da,
                   und die Menschen, die hier leben,
                   wohnen in Amerika.

                   Du brauchst nicht übern Ozean,
                   willst Du reisen nach Amerika,
                   Du besteigst einfach die Muldenbahn
                   und bald schon bist Du da.

                   Denn es liegt im schönen Muldental,
                   und nicht in USA.
                   Sei uns gegrüßt viel tausendmal,
                   Du - mein Klein - Amerika!

Little-America

Surrounded by forest
it lies at the water
and the people who live here
live in America.

You don't have to cross the Ocean
if you want to go to America
you simply board the Mulde-railway
and soon you'll be there.

For it is located in the Mulde valley
and not in the USA
many thousand greetings to you
my little- America.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 08:36 AM

Buenos Aires?

Benidorm?

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 08:38 AM

Greenland

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 09:15 AM

Linda Vista (Beautiful View). Nice in theory -- dumpy in fact.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: sian, west wales
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 09:32 AM

I'm always disappointed by Weston Under Lizard.

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gareth
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 09:34 AM

And then there's Bethlehem - in West Wales.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:06 AM

Hi Gareth - glad to see you Welshmen are close to Jerusalem, here in NZ..;0

Mind you, James K Baxter, one of our better known Kiwi bards, lived there for some years.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:10 AM

Maidenhead in Berkshire
Minehead in Somerset
Durex in Australia?????

Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:15 AM

Lake George near Canberra is usually dry. All you can see is grass & fences.

Then of course if it's been a very wet year, fences poke out of the water!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Pseudolus
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:27 AM

Got a beach here in Delaware called Broadkill Beach. As far as I know, taken literally, it would describe an illegal activity not to mention politically incorrect! As would Slaughter Beach, also in Delaware.....what the heck were we thinking?

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Wolfgang
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:30 AM

When we were young and silly we always laughed about 'Eng-land' (tight-land) and Ir(r)-land (insane-land).

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Micca
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 11:07 AM

River Avon?? which is River River if both parts are translated to english, (not quite an oxymoron, but curious anyway)

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: HuwG
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 11:15 AM

In the Derbyshire Peak District, at lot of the hills are actually called "Lows".

Bleaklow, which I can see from my bedroom window (if you stand on a chair and bend over just so ...) is only partly incorrect; the top is the most dismal black bog imaginable.

There are some other local name endings of (presumably) Anglo-Saxon origin; Clough (deep, narrow valley); Hagg (rough or boggy moorland); Carr (slightly less rough or boggy moorland ???), as possibly in the delightfully-named Carsick Hill, in Sheffield.

Sheffield also boasts Meadow Hall, which is not a meadow and does not have a hall; it is occupied by the M1 flyover, a huge (by UK standards) shopping mall, the sewage works and two derelict cooling towers. Sometimes estate agents should be shot for misrepresentation.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gareth
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 11:20 AM

Micca ? Which River Avon ? Waricks, Hants or Avon ???

In Wales we also have Nazereth, and before the Bowdlerisation by the Railway Company to "Pontlottyn" (Trns Lot's Bridge), Sodom and Gommorah.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: sian, west wales
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 11:21 AM

I don't get it, Gareth. Bethlehem IS Bethlehem. You're not trying to suggest there's another ... ?

sian, west wales
who posts her Christmas cards in Bethlehem ...

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 11:33 AM

I don't know whether it is an oxymoron or not but a place name that has intrigued me since moving to Norfolk is Stratton Strawless.

Huw, my brother who lives in Sheffield calls it Meadow Hell.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 12:06 PM

I once drove through two unincorporated places in Missouri. Traveling from east to west, I came upon the first town -- I don't remember the name, so call it Smithville. West Smithville, in fact.

Ten miles further west I came upon East Smithville.

There was no Smithville.

So West Smithville was east of East Smithville....

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,John Hernandez
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 12:09 PM

Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. No longer an island, no longer any coneys (rabbits).

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 12:21 PM

Isle of Dogs
Virgin Islands
Isle of Sky(e)
Isle of Ewe
I love Paris in the springtime.
Isle get me coat.

Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 12:33 PM

There is a new subdivision going in near a huge *born-again* church. I don't know if the church owns the land of what, but they are calling it "Faith Heights: a spiritual community!" Be interesting to see how the sales go..."Oh, you're a pagan? Let me show you something else!"

Don't forget old Chugwater, Wyoming where you'd be lucky to find a drop to sip let alone chug.

There is a Berlin in Connecticut, but people pronounce it BURR-lun.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 12:38 PM

ANd all those developments who fancy titles like "Blustering Acres" when they are measurable in deci-acres at best! Withering Arms, Decadent Heights, INsipid Rows, Dying Meadows and Flaccid Towers would be more accurate!



A

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 01:04 PM

I know of what you speak Amos as there is a new subdivision built on Gender Road in Columbus named Gender Commons. Must be a unisex place I guess........

I have always wondered if there are a lot of brothels in Intercourse, Pennsylvania.   And what really goes on in Big Bone Lick, Kentucky? I must admit that French Lick, Indiana sounds inviting even though Larry Byrd was from there and he seems pretty straight and conservative. In Ohio there is a Licking County and you'lll find a sign pointing towards the local Masonic Temple......"Licking Lodge---3 miles"....I didn't know that was a part of freemasonry!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 01:14 PM

There's a place in Co Limerick called "Hospital". It hasn't got one, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Poddy
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 01:53 PM

Not exactly oxymoronic, but funny: two towns in Arizona, one called Nothing (consists of a gas station/mechanic/restaurant/general store/house) and another one called Why? (question mark included, I believe)

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:04 PM

Developers really have foisted some pretty low-life constructions on our physical spaces, haven't they? Most folks with an ear for culture don't end up naming things newly built, and most folks with developed aesthetic senses don't end up designing development homes. Consequently, we give huge amounts of our community spaces over to guys whose biggest qualification is power tools and the ability to push things through City Hall! Wodda deal -- we end up with ticky tacky places that look like they were drawn by a gradeschooler, carrying names like Turf'n'surf Towers, or Cholmesley-Under-Gunn Acres. ALl that is required is that good men do nothing, I guess!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:52 PM

Jersey Shore, PA. Nowhere near the New Jersey shore.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: sian, west wales
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:18 PM

There were two Welsh settlements in Albert: Magic and Climax. Maybe oxymoronic; maybe not. There apparently was a Welsh Calvinistic Church of Magic ... and I suspect it wasn't particularly.

sian

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Sethw
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:19 PM

Dull Center in Norheast Wyoming. Not too far away Bright. Or is it?

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Gloria W.
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:25 PM

Germantown, Pennsylvania. Maybe once, but not now.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Emma B
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:29 PM

I have a friend who lives in Hope!

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:43 PM

>>> This way to Hidden Valley homes.... duh, it's not hiding if you point it out!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:49 PM

Bsondahl - But wait, there's an explanation for Big Timber - it used to be on the northern edge of California's Mohave forest. What, you haven't heard of the Mohave forest ??   That's what they called it before Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe, came through and harvested !! :)

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 04:32 PM

I was very pleased to discover Reddish Knob in Virginia on my visit last year.No idea whether its oxymoronic or anything...maybe its something that happens if you roll naked in some irritant local plant?

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Ely
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 05:59 PM

What is it with flat states naming things for hills and mountains?:

Mount Vernon, Iowa--Iowa can be hilly, but "Mount" anything is stretching it.

Rosehill, Texas--flat as a floor and not a flower in sight, of any description.

Round Top, Texas--round top of WHAT?

Texas is full of kooky place names. Cut 'N' Shoot is north of here. There's an exit off of Highway 59 North to Angus and Mustang. I drive through Mustang Ridge (you guessed it, no ridge and no mustangs) on the way to San Marcos. A friend of mine lives not too far from Dime Box.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Emma B
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 06:13 PM

Not a place name as such but in Nantwich there's an AA sign directing people to "The Secret Bunker" I guess that's a bit oxymoronic

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: MudGuard
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 06:14 PM

When you approach Great Britain from South-West, the place where the land starts is called Land's End...

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 06:18 PM

. . . of course, if you are leaving, it IS the end.


And here's my contribution:
Joy Street in Tampico, Il deadends at the cemetery.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gareth
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 07:05 PM

Errr! Mudguard - Appreciate your Point of view, but here are the sailing directions from that old menomic (Sp)
Click 'Ere - in Cornish (Kernow)

If you can see Land's End coming up Channel then be very thankful for the RNLI and Fleet Air Arm SAR Culdrose.

Or you could be the answer to a Cornish Prayer !!!!!!!!

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 07:07 PM

Lots of prominent notices inviting people to our local Secret Bunhker, which was to be the Regional Seat of Government if it came to that. Here is the website.

It's a fascinating day out, very spooky. It's even got Margaret Thatcher giving a broadcast to the nation.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 08:40 PM

We also have Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The truth is that the old TV quiz show paid the town fathers to rename it...and the consequence is that they now have to live with it! More here.

Kat, I used to live in BUR-lin, Connecticut. The accent was supposedly moved during WW-I.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:32 PM

Greg Stephens - It seems that I remember hearing that Greenland was intentionally (and fraudulently) given its name by the Norse to entice settlers. Once people got there and discovered that it wasn't green there wasn't much they could do about it 'cause it was a long cold swim back to the mainland.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 01:14 AM

Mobile, the city, is not an oxymoron. It was named for the Maubila, or Mobile Indians by the original French settlers.

Names like Waterloo, Berlin, Moscow, Paris, Edinburgh, Athens, etc. etc. for North American towns and cities are not oxymorons, which are defined as a combination of contradictory or incongruous words.

Many of the names here do not fit the definition of oxymoron, although they may be silly, kooky or contrary to fact.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gloredhel
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 02:08 AM

There is a Climax, NY, and it isn't much of one. Pretty disappointing, actually.

There's also East Durham and West Durham, NY, but no Durham.

I passed through Agua Caliente, CA today, but the road I was driving on was, according to the sign, Aqua Caliente. Aqua...Caliente. Were they mixing languages?

I also passed two famous roads--Appian Way and Champs Elyees, of course, they were both located here in California, along the Russian River. The Champs Elyees was so narrow that it didn't even have a divider line, and the surroundings didn't resemble the Elesian Fields at all--thick redwood forest and dilapidated houses. The Appian Way that I passed was a one-lane gravel road leading out to a field and dead ending at the Russian River.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: MudGuard
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 02:47 AM

Gareth, the link you provided gives me a search page - was that your intention?

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Suffet
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 06:40 AM

Greetings:

What John Hernandez writes is true, but there is more to be said. Look at 19th century maps and you will see that Coney Island was in fact once an island. Then landfill was dumped, connecting the central part of Coney Island to the mainland of Long Island. (Yes, mainland of Long Island is oxymoronic.) What remains is a peninsula jutting to the west called Coney Island. There is another peninsula jutting to the east called Manhattan Beach. Of course it is not in the Borough of Manhattan, but rather in the Borough of Brooklyn. So we got two oxymoronic place names for the price of one. Separating Coney Island from Manhattan Beach is a stretch called Brighton Beach. Maybe there is another oxymoron there? It's named after a place in England, but the local population are now mostly Russian emigrés.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 09:27 AM

Lower Economy, Nova Scotia...appropriate somehow, isn't it ?

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 10:08 AM

Hope is 30 miles north from here. Pity Me is about 220 miles south.....Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Bsondahl
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 10:50 AM

Re: misuse of oxymoron. Rats. I came up with a great thread, and misnamed it. I guess I'm just a regular moron, not the oxygenated kind.
Brad

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gareth
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 07:41 PM

And then there are the Slaughters - twixt Oxford and Cheltenham, just off the A40.

( You can see I don't pay the tax on the Severn Bridge)

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gurney
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 06:02 AM

GuestQ, if Mobile isn't an oxymoron then it is a very large trailer-park. As our German pal points out, we are laughing, -in another language.
How about the New Forest and Newbridge, both about 900 years old.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 10:22 AM

call me a pedant but Mobile named by settlers as a settlement rather than a way station en route is Oxymoronic in my cannon. AND it made me smile.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 01:14 PM

Kat: I think I understand the idea of 'born-again' Christians, but how can you have a 'born again church' ?

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 06:33 PM

Hmmm....Nigel, I think it had *arisen* from an old pagan site?**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 11:08 PM

Springwater Lodge...Mayne Is. BC... the spring has been dried up for years and their well is poluted... they have to truck in their water...LOL! Still is great place tho!!!

LL

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 03:28 AM

Here in the North of Spain we have a beautiful medieval town, Santillana del Mar, the three-lie village: it's not saint, it's not flat (llana) and the sea is far far away. In anycase, it's really worth a visit.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 04:24 AM

Local to me Swinton Market Place has no market and Fountain Square has no fountains!

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 08:56 AM

Let's not forget Hope, Arkansas. Billy Clinton came from there, but Hope? And Arkansas?

Eternal Rest cemetery was moved and bulldozed for an Interstate highway.

There's the University of Notre Dame du Lac, just barely outside of South Bend, Indiana. King Arthur did NOT get Excalibur there, but they do play (American) football. (Yes, that's the correct name of Notre Dame. With that name it should be Celtic pagan, but it's not.)

Las Putas, California says that it wasn't named for las putas.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: mousethief
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 09:19 AM

Here in the lovely inland waters of western Washington (the state not the city), not far from the mouth of Hood Canal, which is a natural inlet and not a canal, is Point No Point, which I believe should fit any definition of oxymoron.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: lady penelope
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 04:49 PM

Not far from Pity Me there should be a small village called Open Wide.

I can't for the life of me remember the actual name but in south east England there is a hill the if you translate the bits of the name the hill is called " hill hill hill hill". every time someone new invaded they'd point at the hill and say "what's that called?" and the locals obviously said "hill" in their respective languages.

i'll get me coat

TTFN Lady P.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Gareth
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 05:15 PM

Lady P

Pentorhow Hill perchance.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Lanfranc
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 07:12 PM

Nearer home (mine) there's Good Easter and Cold Christmas.

Alan

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Helen
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 07:27 PM

Brad,

Re: your photo of Holden Lake - I can't see a Holden car there, so it must be misnamed.

(Holdens cars have been made in Oz since the 1930's or so - the only Oz-developed cars.)

Amos,

You are seriously undervaluing the talent of guys who have "the ability to push things through City Hall". Having worked in local government I can only have the utmost respect, admiration and awe for anyone who can get City Hall to do anything!

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 09:18 PM

Love Canal.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Bsondahl
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 10:00 PM

Okay, Helen, I'll bite. Where's the Oz of which you speak? As I remember from the many Baum books, I read, it's across a terrible desert making it only accessable by balloon, although I seem to remember Billina and some human making it by boat. And I don't remember any motorcars in Oz.
Brad

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Hilary
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 05:46 AM

Far Forest is in Worcestershire.

H

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 07:01 AM

Yonks back I lived at Lake Rotoiti - northern South Island, NZ. There's more Lake Roto-how's-ya-fathers in NZ than you can shake a stick at. The Maori word 'roto' = 'lake' - awww... shucks.

Ain't placenames wonderful?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Helen
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 12:27 AM

Oz-stralia, of course. Accessible by balloon, ship, airplane, etc.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 01:49 AM

Helen! When I was a kid, it was 'aeroplane', even in the Land of Oz!

American spelling (pronunciation) is certainly taking over. Why even our southern 'Colonial' media use the US date format for "9/11". Mumble, mumble... take me back to the 6th of June! I knew where I stood.

I need a 'Roadmap' to navigate this thread!

Chortle - Sam in NZ

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Micca
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 04:38 AM

Gareth and Lady P. if that hill is the one I was thinking of too it was called Cnocpentorhow Hill
cnoc= hill Gaelic
pen =hill Cornish?
Tor=hill Viking or Saxon?
how= hill Saxon or viking?
Hill = hill in English
so it is Hill hill hill hill Hill!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 06:50 AM

Rapaire

Where is Love Canal?

Bit like the old fairground rides - Tunnel of Love - I guess those Victorians had to be far more intelligent with their humour given the prevailing prudeishness.

Dont' forget Upper Dicker (Mudcat thread http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=58226&messages=12 ) which has a folk festival July 4/5/6

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Emma B
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 01:17 PM

Just got back from Alcester Festival and passed a sign to Pink Green. By the way aren't these recent additions tautological place names like our local Mere mere

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Beccy
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 01:36 PM

Love Canal is up near Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. Far enough from me not to be concerned, but not terribly far.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: lady penelope
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 04:05 PM

that sounds like the one, thanks Gareth & Micca. It was starting to bug me.

TTFN Lady P.

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Deckman
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 06:23 PM

I live in the town of Everett, Washington, about 25 miles North of seattle. About 8 years ago, there was a lovely bunch of woods, just North of one of our oldest and largest Parks. This wooded area hosted deerses, bearses, racoonses, possemses, and many other beautiful creatures. The developers cut everything down, built houses with asphalt raods and drives, and then had the audacity to name the are ... yep, you guessed it ..."THE PRESERVE!" SHEEEUH!. Bob (by the way mousethief, I have caught many a king salmon trolling Point No Point, which by the way is just across from "Double Bluff," and around the corner from "Apple Tree Cove", as I recall).

Subject: RE: BS: Oxymoron place names
From: Helen
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 02:25 AM

Aww Sam! Caught out! And by a Kiwi, no less!

Helen