This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[Bruce]

Yeah, those "facts" were added in 2012 by an anonymous editor and were clearly a piece of vandalism. I've gone ahead and corrected it based on the es.wiki article.

Just note that Spanish Wikipedia is pretty reliable when it comes to topics from Latin America, given that it's one of the earliest-established versions of Wikipedia.

[kphoger]

Per the Spanish Wikipedia that municipality has a population of 1,137 and an area of 28.06 km² (10.83 sq mi). Vandalism, sure.

Yeah, I wouldn't trust the Spanish Wikipedia.  Mexico is a lot closer to the USA than it is to Spain.  Y también, España está ubicado más cerca de los Vándalos que está los EEUU.

It's the Spanish language Wikipedia. Each language has its own, not each country.

I'm choosing to interpret the es. at the beginning of the URL as España, not español castellano.

Yeah, those "facts" were added in 2012 by an anonymous editor and were clearly a piece of vandalism. I've gone ahead and corrected it based on the es.wiki article.

Just note that Spanish Wikipedia is pretty reliable when it comes to topics from Latin America, given that it's one of the earliest-established versions of Wikipedia.

Narc!

[CNGL-Leudimin]

So you want a Mexican Wikipedia separate from the Spanish one? Then the English Wikipedia should be split into at least British and American ones.

[kphoger]

So you want a Mexican Wikipedia separate from the Spanish one? Then the English Wikipedia should be split into at least British and American ones.

Cool.  Let's get on that.

mx.wikipedia.org
uk.wikipedia.org

Oh, wait, that second one already exists.   

[Chris]

There are two Norwegian wikipedias. Bokmål and Nynorsk. Both are essentially the same language but with some spelling differences.

[kalvado]

So you want a Mexican Wikipedia separate from the Spanish one? Then the English Wikipedia should be split into at least British and American ones.

Cool.  Let's get on that.

mx.wikipedia.org
uk.wikipedia.org

Oh, wait, that second one already exists.   

NY.wikipedia.org and KS.wikipedia.org exist as well... Too bad - I had an Idea...

[kalvado]

There are two Norwegian wikipedias. Bokmål and Nynorsk. Both are essentially the same language but with some spelling differences.

There is simple.wikipedia.com for the other English as well.

[kphoger]

There are two Norwegian wikipedias. Bokmål and Nynorsk. Both are essentially the same language but with some spelling differences.

There is simple.wikipedia.com for the other English as well.

Then of course, there's always this other English:  https://ang.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C4%93afodtramet

[bing101]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/22/wool-parish-council-forced-discuss-changing-name-vegan-wool/

Apparently there's a petition to have Wool Parish be renamed.

[ErmineNotyours]

Adding on to the idea of domestic Canadian flights that must cross into the US, here is a domestic ferry that crosses through US waters.  In Tsawwassen, BC, the jetty must be built far into the water to reach water deep enough for the boats, and then Swartz Bay and Long Harbour runs almost immediately cross out of Canada.  You can tell on the ride in person, because the border is marked off with orange buoys and a marker on a tower on the hill.

Bonus fact: the city Tsawwassen was chosen as the ferry terminal so that the ticket takers can laugh at non-locals who try to pronounce the name to buy a ticket back to this city.  Not really, but it might as well be.

[oscar]

Adding on to the idea of domestic Canadian flights that must cross into the US, here is a domestic ferry that crosses through US waters.  In Tsawwassen, BC, the jetty must be built far into the water to reach water deep enough for the boats, and then Swartz Bay and Long Harbour runs almost immediately cross out of Canada.  You can tell on the ride in person, because the border is marked off with orange buoys and a marker on a tower on the hill.

Two Alaska Marine Highway System ferry routes out of Bellingham WA (both going to southeastern Alaska, one continuing to the Anchorage region and other places in south central Alaska) pass non-stop through Canadian waters. That takes advantage of the sheltered waters of British Columbia's part of the Inside Passage, much shorter and smoother than detouring through open ocean west of Vancouver Island.  No customs checks.

I haven't been on either of those routes (except one segment entirely within Alaska), so I don't know how the maritime border is marked. I have taken AMHS ferries to and from Prince Rupert BC, but I slept through the latest ones, and the others were about a quarter-century ago.

[Alps]

Adding on to the idea of domestic Canadian flights that must cross into the US, here is a domestic ferry that crosses through US waters.  In Tsawwassen, BC, the jetty must be built far into the water to reach water deep enough for the boats, and then Swartz Bay and Long Harbour runs almost immediately cross out of Canada.  You can tell on the ride in person, because the border is marked off with orange buoys and a marker on a tower on the hill.

Bonus fact: the city Tsawwassen was chosen as the ferry terminal so that the ticket takers can laugh at non-locals who try to pronounce the name to buy a ticket back to this city.  Not really, but it might as well be.

Silent S? Wouldn't have guessed.

[Chris]

According to Wikipedia, the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal is in fact the largest one in North America.

They also built a large shopping mall near the ferry terminal a few years ago, the Tsawwassen Mills. It is one of the largest malls in Canada.

[bing101]

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/6-british-towns-villages-had-063000921.html

Here are some towns in the UK that had to change their name.

[english si]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/22/wool-parish-council-forced-discuss-changing-name-vegan-wool/

Apparently there's a petition to have Wool Parish be renamed.

Somewhere much more well off and suburban (and thus have bien pensant middle-class attitudes towards 'political correctness gone mad') like Ham would be more likely to actually do it (or Eel Pie Island to the north).

Wool is not the kind of place that would be that fussed about bending over backwards to not offend vegan sensibilities (not that they would be rude, just that they wouldn't go over-the-top by changing the name), and would know that changing the village's name would be offensive to many others in their rural community, especially the sheep farmers.

[Scott5114]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/22/wool-parish-council-forced-discuss-changing-name-vegan-wool/

Apparently there's a petition to have Wool Parish be renamed.

Somewhere much more well off and suburban (and thus have bien pensant middle-class attitudes towards 'political correctness gone mad') like Ham would be more likely to actually do it (or Eel Pie Island to the north).

Wool is not the kind of place that would be that fussed about bending over backwards to not offend vegan sensibilities (not that they would be rude, just that they wouldn't go over-the-top by changing the name), and would know that changing the village's name would be offensive to many others in their rural community, especially the sheep farmers.

There was a similar situation in the town of Slaughterville, Oklahoma, south of Norman on US-77. As a PR stunt, PETA rolled into town in 2004 and offered to buy the town $20,000 worth of veggie burgers if they changed the name to Veggieville. The town declined, seeing as how it was named in honor of a local business owner, James Slaughter, and had never been the site of any appreciable amount of meat production.

Getting fussed about wool seems kind of silly anyway–while it's possible for any industry involving animals to go out of its way to be cruel to them (and this should have course be discouraged), wool production is merely giving sheep haircuts and keeping the leftovers. I imagine most of the people advocating for the change would bat an eye at having their dog groomed!

[TheHighwayMan3561]

They also tried to pay Fishkill, NY to change its name, though again the town declined. The old Dutch word for "creek"  was "kill" , so the town's name effectively translates to "Fish Creek" .

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I may have mentioned it before, but Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, is partly antipodean to the Argentinian province of Formosa. Formosa on the antipodes of Formosa, how great.

[Chris]

They also tried to pay Fishkill, NY to change its name, though again the town declined. The old Dutch word for "creek"  was "kill" , so the town's name effectively translates to "Fish Creek" .

There are several "kill" names in New York / New Jersey. It is indeed adapted from old Dutch: kille (now kil in Dutch). The Kil is a major (albeit short) river in the Netherlands and has a tunnel: the Kil Tunnel. The Schuylkill Expressway in Philadelphia has a similar etymology (to schuil): it means refuge, shelter or hidden. Perhaps it wasn't a very visible river at the mouth.

The -sch is pronounced very different in Dutch than in English though.

[kalvado]

They also tried to pay Fishkill, NY to change its name, though again the town declined. The old Dutch word for "creek"  was "kill" , so the town's name effectively translates to "Fish Creek" .

They could get more support with Catskills, though...

[US 89]

They also tried to pay Fishkill, NY to change its name, though again the town declined. The old Dutch word for “creek” was “kill”, so the town’s name effectively translates to “Fish Creek”.

They could get more support with Catskills, though...

But we want to celebrate the skills of the cats!

[GaryV]

They also tried to pay Fishkill, NY to change its name, though again the town declined. The old Dutch word for "creek"  was "kill" , so the town's name effectively translates to "Fish Creek" .

They could get more support with Catskills, though...

But we want to celebrate the skills of the cats!

Or celebrate the kills of cats - who needs all those rodents?

Which reminds me of a recent topic of conversation with my (slightly weird) brother.  Why don't the cat food companies make rodent-flavor bits?  Wouldn't the cats just love it?

[hbelkins]

I've mentioned often that I worked with Malcolm "Mac" Kilduff, the assistant presidential press secretary who announced JFK's death and recorded LBJ's swearing in.

He was a Staten Island native, but said that the name Kilduff was a geographical derivative of the surname Duff. This particular group of Duffs lived by a kil, hence Kilduff. He always said he and the principal of a high school in an adjoining county whose last name was Duff could probably trace their ancestry to a common source.

[abefroman329]

Every so often, there's an effort to rename Downers Grove (IL) to something more uplifting.

It was named for its founder, Pierce Downer.

[jon daly]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/22/wool-parish-council-forced-discuss-changing-name-vegan-wool/

Apparently there's a petition to have Wool Parish be renamed.

Somewhere much more well off and suburban (and thus have bien pensant middle-class attitudes towards 'political correctness gone mad') like Ham would be more likely to actually do it (or Eel Pie Island to the north).

Wool is not the kind of place that would be that fussed about bending over backwards to not offend vegan sensibilities (not that they would be rude, just that they wouldn't go over-the-top by changing the name), and would know that changing the village's name would be offensive to many others in their rural community, especially the sheep farmers.

The two folks who I've seen use that French loan-word, "bien pensant," both have British backgrounds. Is it more common to use French loanwords across the pond than in the US?