"To me, there's embroidery floss, dental floss and a river named Floss."

Not strictly true, Leeneia. There is no river named Floss, except in fiction. George Eliot is believed to have based 'The Mill on the Floss' on the Lincolnshire town of Gainsborough and the River Trent which flows through it - she stayed for a period, during her researching for the book, at a merchant's house close to Gainsborough Bridge and by the Trent, where there were a number of mills. There is also a tidal bore at Gainsborough, known locally as 'The Aegir', which is thought to have given Eliot the idea for the deaths of Maggie and Tom Tulliver in the swollen Floss.