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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, here's a new article covering some old tyerritory, but with a list of etymologies, to boot! And, yes, Connie...Hell, Michigan is on the list! (it's even on the poll for the weirdest!)  http://makeashorterlink.com/?N25333C24One nit note: Intercourse, PA (the Pennsylvania Dutch) has got dibs on that Alabammy town.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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> Intercourse, Alabama: Named for the crossroads where the general store sits. True story: A sign was posted outside the town's meeting hall promoting the local ladies' sewing instruction group. It read, "Intercourse Lessons Wednesday Night." After several car crashes at that intersection, the good ladies were asked to remove the sign.< Somethin's tellin' me milum was among the vehicularly-challenged fender-benders there (ahem)! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Like most of the stories on that site, it struck me as being apocryphal. Why would they put the name of the town to advertise the lessons rather than what they wanted to teach?
Bingley
Bingley
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Aw, Bingley, you're no fun anymore! 
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old hand
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There is a Boring, Oregon.
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Pooh-Bah
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You implying it's Bingley's home town? I assure you it isn't. Although where he does come from could very well turn out to be boring ...
Here's a placename story. Now you guys all know that I'd never pull anyone's leg over anything at all, and that's a fact.
But when I was leading trail rides for a friend's riding stables up the Shotover River (named after Shotover in Scotland), I got to put my own stamp on at least one place name with a limited, nay, select group of people.
The Shotover was a gold river, the richest in New Zealand and only beaten, I understand, by the Klondike. One bend in the river, not far from the state highway and on the trail we rode, was called Cyanide Point. The trail is about 300ft above the river on some fairly steep bluffs, and it's pretty much a direttissimo into the river if you fall. It was named after some old cyanide tanks that had belonged to a quartz-rock gold mine and it says so right on the pamphlet that we handed to the riders before they left. But someone would always ask. Always. And I'd always say "Well, it's a long way down. One drop and you're dead."
The funny thing is that a lot of the riders had read their pamphlets before they left. But I was never "corrected". Tittered at from time to time, but not called a liar ...
- Pfranz
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Carpal Tunnel
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One woman, though, did not follow CK's instructions; she got off her horse for a better look at the river, and came to a tragic end. Her name? Eileen Dover
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Pooh-Bah
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Jackie, don't even think of coming to Ireland. That pun just changed my mind about capital punishment ....
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Carpal Tunnel
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oh, her poor husband, Ben.
formerly known as etaoin...
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old hand
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. . . and her Chinese houseboy Nee Ling . . .
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addict
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Yes, folks. There really is a place called (and pronounced) Mianus. http://makeashorterlink.com/?A27761B34So don't be surprised next time you hear someone say "I've got a cousin in Mianus".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes,and there is a Hicksville on Long Island-- Named after the Hicks family (landowners in colonial times, and family still lives in the area)
every where there are near by places with strange names...some times you don't even think of them as strange until you get away from there.
My (ex)mother-in-law hails from Dummer NH--(but there is no dum(b) or dum(b)est!)and while my mailing address is Rego Park, the official post office name is Flushing (1 am about 1/2 mile, (1 K)away from Flushing Meadows Park--(of simpson /NY worlds fair) fame. Homer saw acres of commodes, (wrong!) but flushing creek in past would have smelled as if he was right! (its cleaner now than in the past)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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the official post office name is Flushing (1 am about 1/2 mile, (1 K)away from Flushing Meadows Park--(of simpson /NY worlds fair) fame.
Hey, hey, ot...can't leave out Shea Stadium and the New York Mets!
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yeah, they're there--but NY's real baseball team plays in Da Bronx!
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Carpal Tunnel
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but NY's real baseball team plays in Da Bronx!Agreed! 
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Pooh-Bah
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Well you can find Oddville, Kentucky on highway 62 east of Cynthiana.
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Pooh-Bah
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Now that I think of it, there is also a Nonesuch, Kentucky.
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Pooh-Bah
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You're from Acme, Michigan? Did Wile E. Coyote live nearby?
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"You're from Acme, Michigan? Did Wile E. Coyote live nearby?"
Silly person, he didn't LIVE there, he just supported the local manufacturer.
As for that poor lady at Cyanide Falls, I bet her husband Ben wasn't there at all. I heard she was traveling with her lover Hugo First.
There's also a Climax, Colorado.
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Pooh-Bah
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Oops, I meant Cyanide POINT.
DXB, was your "come again" directed at me? Haven't you heard of that book, Tragedy on the Cliff, by Eileen Dover? The illustrator was Hugo First.
Or maybe that wasn't the point of confusion? Or maybe you weren't talking to me?
Or maybe I should go back to cataloging books, which is what they pay me for, instead of, um, goofing off?
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Pooh-Bah
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Well, no...embarrassed pause...actually I was making a pun around the last line of your immediately preceding post. Sorry about that.
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Carpal Tunnel
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...maybe I should go back to cataloging books, which is what they pay me for, instead of, um, goofing off?
Goofing off? How sweet! [Plink, plink]
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"Well, no...embarrassed pause...actually I was making a pun around the last line of your immediately
preceding post. Sorry about that."
Aw shucks. Now *I'm embarassed. It's early in the day. Here, anyway. The only correct response to the question "Come again?" is "Sure, my place or yours?"
When my acquaintance revealed she had graduated from Climax High School (which is how I heard of the place) there was the predictable round of wink-wink nudge-nudge commentary.
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Pooh-Bah
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Yeah...sigh...we're a predictable lot, us human beans.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Population: Climax, Michigan-677 Climax, Colorado-346 Elevation: Climax, Michigan-972 feet Climax, Colorado-11,302 feet http://www.pe.net/~rksnow/micountyclimax.htmIn reply to:
Climax is supposed to be the highest point of elevation in the state of Michigan!
I think there are some Yoopers that might not agree with that, but then again, the Lower Penninsula's history of ignoring the existence of the Upper Penninsula unless it's for hunting, fishing and camping is quite well known and the Yoopers could care less about the trolls, anyway.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I had always heard that Kalamazoo meant "boiling waters" so I was a little surprised when I found this: The name Kalamazoo comes from the Indian word "Kikalamazoo" which means the mirage of reflecting river. I was also quite surprised to learn that apparantly there is more than one Kalamazoo http://www.placesnamed.com/k/a/kalamazoo.aspKalamazoo, Arkansas Kalamazoo, Florida Kalamazoo, West Virginia
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Connie, them others must be wannabes! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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And you should hear all the jokes at the end of the school year about the rising class of seniors!
Actually, I'm not sure there is a Climax HS. Climax is an area at a pass between Leadville and hmmm Copper Mountain I think. When I was doing a lot of cycling it was one of my favorite rides because the road is very wide (about a six-foot shoulder or berm for cycling, even on the tight curves going up to the pass. Right at the pass is the Climax Molybdenum Mine, where they used to mine millions of pounds of that odd metal. It's been closed for some years, and the area is pretty badly affected by the lack of work.
Leadville's the highest city in the US, somewhere above 10K feet (3000 plus meters). If it weren't so damned cold there in the winter it'd be a nice retirement town.
Speaking of cold, here in Denver we are in the midst of a winter storm, with 8 inches or so of very wet snow breaking down trees and shrubs. I've only lost a couple of branches from my maple tree, and the purple lilacs looked as though they had fallen asleep across the hood of my car.
TEd
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I recall reading an interesting tidbit about Kalamazoo many years ago (I think it was in a Mario Pei book about words).
Down Mexico way, or maybe further south, a major traffic accident was called a "kalamasoso"--an expression derived from the trolley car accidents (which apparently were not infrequent). The front of the trolley cars were emblazoned with the U.S. city in which they were manufactured: Kalamazoo.
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My father was born in Hot Springs, New Mexico, a small town that took its name from its main industry--the healing hot springs that brought people from all over the world.
In the 1950s, a popular radio show, emceed by Art Linkletter, offered the town a monetary inducement if it would change its name to the name of the radio show. After a referendum by the townspeople, the town was officially renamed (for Gods sake!) "Truth or Consequences."
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Pooh-Bah
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If that little piece of history came from a less reliable source, Mr Hawaii, sir, it would have to taken with several pinches of salt! It must have been a hell of a monetary inducement! Did the name stick? Is it still called that?
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Please see http://www.edd.state.nm.us/FILM/PROFILES/torc.htm
I was in error regarding the host of the show--it was Ralph Edwards rather than Art Linkletter.
As I recall from other reading, the town was to benefit from the publicity and an annual festival sponsored by the radio/TV company. Enough of the old timers objected to the name change that they demanded a second referendum, which resulted in an even larger number in favor of the name change. One of the selling points was the fact that there are a number of U.S. cities named Hot Springs, and this action elevated them from obscurity into the limelight.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In northwestern Minnesota there are two towns named Fertile and Climax that are about 10 miles apart. The headline was on a story about a woman from Fertile, MN who died in a car accident in Climax, MN. (surely this is a self-yart..)
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