BS: Oxymoron place names

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Hilary
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 05:46 AM

Far Forest is in Worcestershire.

H

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: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 09:18 PM

Love Canal.

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: 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: Gareth
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 05:15 PM

Lady P

Pentorhow Hill perchance.

Gareth

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 09:27 AM

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Emma B
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 03:29 PM

I have a friend who lives in Hope!

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: 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: 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: Walking Eagle
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:52 PM

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