G'day Eric. You're looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Not bad for a nonagenarian, I must say. I've just googled your name, and found dozens of links to stories you have written.
How did it all begin?
About 12 years ago one of my four sons, Ian, emailed a very clever anagram to me. It was:
Shakespeare: To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Anagram: In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten.
>
I was so impressed that I decided to trace it back to find itt I soon established that it had been composed by an American post-graduate student, Cory Calhoun. And it was posted on an anagram website run by Anu Garg.
I exchanged several emails about anagrams with Anu Garg, one of which I still find amazing:
I discovered that ANAGRAM GENIUS= NAME IS ANU GARG
Anu then invited me to be his copy editor.
I gladly accepted. Twelve years later, I still enjoy
that job.
Anu is now an American citizen living in Seattle.
You claim you've written a thousand stories. Have you kept count of them?
No, it's only a guesstimate, and it doesn't include hundreds of items I wrote for newspapers when I worked as a staff journalist.
Which newspapers have you worked for?
In New Zealand: The Press (Christchurch)
In Australia: The Queenslander*, Brisbane Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail; Sydney: Daily Telegraph, Truth*,Daily Mirror*, Weekend*
*No longer published
Have you had any stories published as a freelance?
Yes, quite a lot. One in The New York Times and one in The Observer (London)...
and several in The Sydney Morning Herald.
How can we find your stories?
Try these three collections:
Eric Shackle's e-book (South Africa):
http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/archives/archive_summary.htm
Ohmy News (South Korea):
http://english.ohmynews.com/english/eng_article_diff.asp?writer_id=Shack&at_code=387303
Open Writing (England):
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/eric_shackle_writes/
Do you receive much feedback from your readers?
No, very little. That's probably because I steer clear of politics and religion, and other controversial subjects. I usually write about trivia.
A few months after I began putting stories on the internet, I received these messages
It's an ever-expanding collection of stories that make us think, laugh, and learn.
Wordsmith Anu Garg, mastermind of A.Word.A.Day Seattle, Washington, USA.
"Life begins at 80 ... on the Internet," proclaims Eric.
And ever since his hi-tech epiphany, he has been celebrating his
new-found obsession with this eclectic collection of writing.
Nick Galvin checks out some of the newest destinations on the Net
(Sydney Morning Herald)
I don't read your articles because you are "the oldest."
I read them because you have interesting things to say.
"The Boy on a Bicycle", Denver, Colorado, USA.
I thought that I would never see
My father grasp technology.
Now his thoughts rush 'round the world
A brain let loose like flags unfurled.
Ian Shackle, Frog Rock, New South Wales, Australia
I hope those endorsements still apply.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Friday, 8 June 2012
OGOPOGO: Canada's Loch Ness Monster
From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.
Five members of the Okanagan Masters Swim Club risked an encounter with Canada's fearsome inland sea monster, Ogopogo a few days ago.
They braved 13 degree temperatures and white-capped waves in a qualifying swim for crossing the English Channel as a relay team next summer.
Sightings of Ogopogo date as far back as the early 1800s. In 1860. John McDougall lost his team of horses when they were pulled under as he was swimming them across the lake in a canoe....never to be seen again.
But fear not. He (or possibly she) is said to be the world's friendliest inland sea monster, living for centuries in an underwater cave in a 30-mile-long lake which is 1,000 feet deep in places.
Hundreds of locals and visitors claim to have seen Ogopogo in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, some 250 miles east of Vancouver.
The first I knew of him (or her) was 12 years ago, when my friend Mick Read, who lives in Peachland, British Columbia, in the mountains above Okanagan Lake, told me in an email:
"A couple of years ago me and dog were sniffing around the Lake bank and I noticed something coming towards the bank. A bunch of small humps. I observed for a while and wrote them off as a few beavers following in line.
"Tell anyone they would think I am up the bloody wall. So I kept mum for a time. A friend the ex-Fire Chief now runs the museum, seeing I often pull his leg reckoned it was Ogo. Of course he was born here."
Fact or fantasy? Your guess is as good as mine.
John McDougall was a firm believer in the existence of this monster, for he had the experience of losing his team of horses when he was swimming it across the lake "to assist Mr. Allison with the haying."
"These were the horses he used in hunting, and when crossing the lake he always carried along a chicken or tiny pig, which he dropped in the water as he neared the middle.
"Unfortunately he had forgotten his 'peace-offering' on this occasion. The horses were being towed on a long rope. Suddenly they were drawn down by some great force from below.
"The canoe would have gone too, had not Johnny quickly cut the rope with his sheath knife, and hurriedly rowed away from the scene. Not a vestige of his team was ever seen again."'
Twelve years ago, the Rotary Club of Penticton, Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce and Okanagan Unviersity College offered to pay two million Canadian dollars to anyone finding alive and definitively verifying Ogopogo's existence between August 1, 2000 and September 1, 2001.
There were a few submissions, but the judges were not satisfied that they provided adequate proof, and no award was made.
One website says that the local North American indigenous people knew Ogopogo as N'Ha-a-itk, meaning "Lake Demon."
According to legend, he was formerly a man possessed by a demon, who had slain a neighbour known as Old Kan-He-K (in whose honour Lake Okanagan was named). The gods turned him into a giant sea serpent, to remain at the crime scene for ever.
Ogopogo has been spotted several times in recent years, the latest being on May 27, 2012, according to these reports posted by SunnyOkanagan.com:
"June 4 2004. Debbie reported seeing Ogopogo to CKOV radio. She was watching the lake with her three children at 7:30 PM on the north west end of the lake. First the ducks and loons took off.
"Then she heard a thump thump thump thump in rapid succession making the water spray up, spitting and splashing, much louder than a beaver slap.
"She saw three smooth shiny humps mostly submerged. The creature swam about 3 feet and submerged leaving the water perfectly calm. She was so scared she ran into the house and thought 'Who should I call? No one will believe me.'
"Just two weeks previous also at 7:30 PM she saw a neck and dinosaur head moving through the water past about three houses. The skin was hairless and the colour was a deep grey black like she had never seen before.
"She estimated the body to be 15 feet long swimming like a snake, very mellow and quiet. The head had a bump on the top - dolphins have a bump they use for sonar. It was the weirdest color and the head the weirdest shape."
"August 9, 2004. John Casorso reported seeing and video taping Ogopogo.. He and his family were in a house boat by Trader's Cove at the old ferry docks early in the morning when he heard a thump thump thumping (same reported thumping as by Debbie) and thrashing beneath the house boat and the house boat tilted 20° and rocked. The lake was perfectly calm and there were no motor boats.
"He saw the object 30 feet away, got his video recorder and video taped a large dark object like a black wave, submerging and surfacing... a hundred yards away - he videotaped it for 15 minutes. At times there appeared to be two parallel objects.
"When he got home he played it back and the object resolved clearly depicting a large object with humps, stretching out at times like a reptile, perhaps the best video yet of Ogopogo."
Thousands of miles to the east, in Lake Simcoe, an hour's drive north from Toronto, Ontario, another strange marine monster is said to dwell.
An article on the website of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club says:
"[It] has been given the nickname Igopogo - an obvious parody of the name bestowed upon the aquatic marvel of Okanagan Lake, British Columbia.
"As Igopogo has been frequently sighted in Kempenfelt Bay on the northwestern side of this roughly circular lake, it is also known as Kempenfelt Kelly.
"Those who have had the good fortune of obtaining a sighting of the reticent and elusive beast have described it as having a stove-pipe neck with a head resembling that of a dog and with a face to match.
"The largest specimen sighted was a mere 12 feet long - a small enough creature when compared with the lurking hulks said to dwell at Loch Ness and Okanagan Lake."
The Ogo-Pogo, the Funny Foxtrot (1924)
This English music-hall song from 1924, The Ogo-Pogo: The Funny Fox-Trot, is thought to have inspired the name of Canada's Ogopogo. It was played by the Savoy Havana Band; composed by Mark Strong, words by Cumberland Clark:
One fine day in Hindustan, I met a funny little man. With googly eyes and lantern jaws, a new silk hat and some old plus-fours. When I said to that quaint old chap "Why do you carry that big steel trap, that butterfly net and that rusty gun?" He replied "Listen here my son:
I'm looking for the ogo-pogo
That funny little ogo-pogo.
His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale,
And I want to put a little salt on his tail.
I want to find the ogo-pogo
While he's playing on his old banjo.
For the Lord Mayor of London,
The Lord Mayor of London,
Wants to put him in the Lord Mayor's show.
Upon his banjo night and day,
The ogo-pogo likes to play.
He charms the snakes and chimpanzees,
The big baboons and the bumblebees.
Lions and tigers begin to roar
"Play that melody just once more.
Do I hear the sound of an old banjo?
Pardon me I shall have to go, for
I'm looking for the ogo-pogo,
That funny little ogo-pogo.
His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale,
And I want to put a little salt on his tail,
For the Lord Mayor of London
Wants to put him in the Lord Mayor's show.
Ogopogo video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_IkLB74Uw0
Loch Ness Monster Swim:
http://www.monsterswim.co.uk/
Five members of the Okanagan Masters Swim Club risked an encounter with Canada's fearsome inland sea monster, Ogopogo a few days ago.
They braved 13 degree temperatures and white-capped waves in a qualifying swim for crossing the English Channel as a relay team next summer.
Sightings of Ogopogo date as far back as the early 1800s. In 1860. John McDougall lost his team of horses when they were pulled under as he was swimming them across the lake in a canoe....never to be seen again.
But fear not. He (or possibly she) is said to be the world's friendliest inland sea monster, living for centuries in an underwater cave in a 30-mile-long lake which is 1,000 feet deep in places.
Hundreds of locals and visitors claim to have seen Ogopogo in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, some 250 miles east of Vancouver.
The first I knew of him (or her) was 12 years ago, when my friend Mick Read, who lives in Peachland, British Columbia, in the mountains above Okanagan Lake, told me in an email:
"A couple of years ago me and dog were sniffing around the Lake bank and I noticed something coming towards the bank. A bunch of small humps. I observed for a while and wrote them off as a few beavers following in line.
"Tell anyone they would think I am up the bloody wall. So I kept mum for a time. A friend the ex-Fire Chief now runs the museum, seeing I often pull his leg reckoned it was Ogo. Of course he was born here."
Fact or fantasy? Your guess is as good as mine.
John McDougall was a firm believer in the existence of this monster, for he had the experience of losing his team of horses when he was swimming it across the lake "to assist Mr. Allison with the haying."
"These were the horses he used in hunting, and when crossing the lake he always carried along a chicken or tiny pig, which he dropped in the water as he neared the middle.
"Unfortunately he had forgotten his 'peace-offering' on this occasion. The horses were being towed on a long rope. Suddenly they were drawn down by some great force from below.
"The canoe would have gone too, had not Johnny quickly cut the rope with his sheath knife, and hurriedly rowed away from the scene. Not a vestige of his team was ever seen again."'
Twelve years ago, the Rotary Club of Penticton, Penticton & Wine Country Chamber of Commerce and Okanagan Unviersity College offered to pay two million Canadian dollars to anyone finding alive and definitively verifying Ogopogo's existence between August 1, 2000 and September 1, 2001.
There were a few submissions, but the judges were not satisfied that they provided adequate proof, and no award was made.
One website says that the local North American indigenous people knew Ogopogo as N'Ha-a-itk, meaning "Lake Demon."
According to legend, he was formerly a man possessed by a demon, who had slain a neighbour known as Old Kan-He-K (in whose honour Lake Okanagan was named). The gods turned him into a giant sea serpent, to remain at the crime scene for ever.
Ogopogo has been spotted several times in recent years, the latest being on May 27, 2012, according to these reports posted by SunnyOkanagan.com:
"June 4 2004. Debbie reported seeing Ogopogo to CKOV radio. She was watching the lake with her three children at 7:30 PM on the north west end of the lake. First the ducks and loons took off.
"Then she heard a thump thump thump thump in rapid succession making the water spray up, spitting and splashing, much louder than a beaver slap.
"She saw three smooth shiny humps mostly submerged. The creature swam about 3 feet and submerged leaving the water perfectly calm. She was so scared she ran into the house and thought 'Who should I call? No one will believe me.'
"Just two weeks previous also at 7:30 PM she saw a neck and dinosaur head moving through the water past about three houses. The skin was hairless and the colour was a deep grey black like she had never seen before.
"She estimated the body to be 15 feet long swimming like a snake, very mellow and quiet. The head had a bump on the top - dolphins have a bump they use for sonar. It was the weirdest color and the head the weirdest shape."
"August 9, 2004. John Casorso reported seeing and video taping Ogopogo.. He and his family were in a house boat by Trader's Cove at the old ferry docks early in the morning when he heard a thump thump thumping (same reported thumping as by Debbie) and thrashing beneath the house boat and the house boat tilted 20° and rocked. The lake was perfectly calm and there were no motor boats.
"He saw the object 30 feet away, got his video recorder and video taped a large dark object like a black wave, submerging and surfacing... a hundred yards away - he videotaped it for 15 minutes. At times there appeared to be two parallel objects.
"When he got home he played it back and the object resolved clearly depicting a large object with humps, stretching out at times like a reptile, perhaps the best video yet of Ogopogo."
Thousands of miles to the east, in Lake Simcoe, an hour's drive north from Toronto, Ontario, another strange marine monster is said to dwell.
An article on the website of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club says:
"[It] has been given the nickname Igopogo - an obvious parody of the name bestowed upon the aquatic marvel of Okanagan Lake, British Columbia.
"As Igopogo has been frequently sighted in Kempenfelt Bay on the northwestern side of this roughly circular lake, it is also known as Kempenfelt Kelly.
"Those who have had the good fortune of obtaining a sighting of the reticent and elusive beast have described it as having a stove-pipe neck with a head resembling that of a dog and with a face to match.
"The largest specimen sighted was a mere 12 feet long - a small enough creature when compared with the lurking hulks said to dwell at Loch Ness and Okanagan Lake."
The Ogo-Pogo, the Funny Foxtrot (1924)
This English music-hall song from 1924, The Ogo-Pogo: The Funny Fox-Trot, is thought to have inspired the name of Canada's Ogopogo. It was played by the Savoy Havana Band; composed by Mark Strong, words by Cumberland Clark:
One fine day in Hindustan, I met a funny little man. With googly eyes and lantern jaws, a new silk hat and some old plus-fours. When I said to that quaint old chap "Why do you carry that big steel trap, that butterfly net and that rusty gun?" He replied "Listen here my son:
I'm looking for the ogo-pogo
That funny little ogo-pogo.
His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale,
And I want to put a little salt on his tail.
I want to find the ogo-pogo
While he's playing on his old banjo.
For the Lord Mayor of London,
The Lord Mayor of London,
Wants to put him in the Lord Mayor's show.
Upon his banjo night and day,
The ogo-pogo likes to play.
He charms the snakes and chimpanzees,
The big baboons and the bumblebees.
Lions and tigers begin to roar
"Play that melody just once more.
Do I hear the sound of an old banjo?
Pardon me I shall have to go, for
I'm looking for the ogo-pogo,
That funny little ogo-pogo.
His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale,
And I want to put a little salt on his tail,
For the Lord Mayor of London
Wants to put him in the Lord Mayor's show.
Ogopogo video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_IkLB74Uw0
Loch Ness Monster Swim:
http://www.monsterswim.co.uk/
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Hear the World on your Computer
From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.
This may be old hat (stale news) to you, but it's an exciting discovery to me. I've found I can use my computer to listen to hundreds of radio stations around the world.
In the last two days I've heard programs being broadcast by stations in New Zealand, South Africa, Bhutan, Ireland and the United States. All I had to do was to visit a website in Palo Alto, California called TuneIn
The website says:
"TuneIn is a free service that lets you listen to anything in the world from wherever you are. Whether you want to hear music, sports, news or current events, TuneIn offers over 50,000 stations, all yours, for you to choose from.
"From finding local stations to discovering new stations from around the world, TuneIn brings you to where you want to be.Millions of people across every continent listen to what they love through TuneIn."
Here are some of the stations I've heard (with varying degrees of interest):
Radio Valley 99.9, Thimphu, Bhutan. Bhutan is a small kingdom in the Himalayas, between India and China.
KNTU Denton, Texas
KNTU is licensed to the University of North Texas and is on the air 24 hours, every day of the year, broadcasting with 100,000 watts at 88.1 FM.
The Night Time Network, Dublin, Ireland. Its website says:
On the Night-Time Network we realise that not everybody goes to bed at night...if you're doing the night shift or just having trouble counting sheep, we have plenty of music and games to get you through your night.
567 Cape Talk. News from Cape Town, South Africa.
Try it out for yourself. Tune in to Tunein com
This may be old hat (stale news) to you, but it's an exciting discovery to me. I've found I can use my computer to listen to hundreds of radio stations around the world.
In the last two days I've heard programs being broadcast by stations in New Zealand, South Africa, Bhutan, Ireland and the United States. All I had to do was to visit a website in Palo Alto, California called TuneIn
The website says:
"TuneIn is a free service that lets you listen to anything in the world from wherever you are. Whether you want to hear music, sports, news or current events, TuneIn offers over 50,000 stations, all yours, for you to choose from.
"From finding local stations to discovering new stations from around the world, TuneIn brings you to where you want to be.Millions of people across every continent listen to what they love through TuneIn."
Here are some of the stations I've heard (with varying degrees of interest):
Radio Valley 99.9, Thimphu, Bhutan. Bhutan is a small kingdom in the Himalayas, between India and China.
KNTU Denton, Texas
KNTU is licensed to the University of North Texas and is on the air 24 hours, every day of the year, broadcasting with 100,000 watts at 88.1 FM.
The Night Time Network, Dublin, Ireland. Its website says:
On the Night-Time Network we realise that not everybody goes to bed at night...if you're doing the night shift or just having trouble counting sheep, we have plenty of music and games to get you through your night.
567 Cape Talk. News from Cape Town, South Africa.
Try it out for yourself. Tune in to Tunein com
Monday, 28 May 2012
BBC Overseas Service May Be In Peril
From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia <ericshackleATbigpond.com>
The BBC may be about to close its shortwave service which has presented Britain to the world for 70 years.
I stumbled on this disturbing information while researching a story I was writing about the world's most powerful radio transmitters.
"RAMPISHAM’S radio transmission station may close before Christmas with the loss of more than 20 jobs, even though it’s currently broadcasting into Libya," Jonathan Hudston wrote in his blog.
"The proposed shutdown of the Dorset site follows the BBC’s decision earlier this year to cut back on World Service shortwave broadcasting and stop it altogether by 2014, even though nearly half of the World Service’s audience (184 million in 2010-11) listens via shortwave.
"The BBC says it’s phasing out shortwave because the Foreign Office cut the World Service grant by 16% (£46 million).
"The possible closure of Rampisham raises some big questions.Such as: Isn’t it just a stupid idea? And: Is it even possible?"
Some 80 years ago, in the early days of commercial broadcasting, a New Zealand radio station, 4ZF Dunedin, used only seven watts to play gramophone recorded music to its few hundred listeners.
Far away across the Pacific, the Crosley Radio Corporation, of Cincinnati, Ohio, boastedI've just added a new story to my blog:
Nimblenoms.blogspot.com
that its station, the new 500,000 watt WLW, was the most powerful in the world.
As a teenager in Christchurch, New Zealand in the 1930s, my hobby was DXing, searching for lond-distance radio programs. I managed to listen to both 4ZF and WLW.
Where are the most powerful broadcasting stations today?
To find the answer to that question I consulted my friend David Ricquish, founder and chairman of the Radio Heritage Foundation, in Wellington, New Zealand's capital city. He has compiled an amazing database of thousands of stations around the world.
Here's his surprising response:
These seem to be the 4 largest SW sites by kW power.
1. Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, Kamalabad site = 12 x500kW, 1 x 350kW, 3 x 250kW, 10 x 100kW = 8,100kW
2. RTRN [Russia], Taldom site = 3 x 1000kW, 4 x 250kW, 12 x 100kW =5,200kW
3. Babcock International, Rampisham UK site = 10 x 500kW = 5,000kW
4. SARFT [China], Urumqi, Xinjiang site = 8 x 500kW, 9 x 100kW =4,900kW
LINKS
BBC prediction: http://www.realwestdorset.co.uk/wordpress/08/2011/dorset-bbc-world-service-rampisham-radio-transmitting-station-clo
http://www.realwestdorset.co.uk/wordpress/08/2011/dorset-bbc-world-service-rampisham-radio-transmitting-station-clo
Hard-Core-DX: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/archives/july2001.html
Middle East on Shortwave:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bdxc
Sunday Mail, Brisbane (1938)
http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/images/roughrodeo.gif
RTRN Russia: http://www.rtrn.it/
The BBC may be about to close its shortwave service which has presented Britain to the world for 70 years.
I stumbled on this disturbing information while researching a story I was writing about the world's most powerful radio transmitters.
"RAMPISHAM’S radio transmission station may close before Christmas with the loss of more than 20 jobs, even though it’s currently broadcasting into Libya," Jonathan Hudston wrote in his blog.
"The proposed shutdown of the Dorset site follows the BBC’s decision earlier this year to cut back on World Service shortwave broadcasting and stop it altogether by 2014, even though nearly half of the World Service’s audience (184 million in 2010-11) listens via shortwave.
"The BBC says it’s phasing out shortwave because the Foreign Office cut the World Service grant by 16% (£46 million).
"The possible closure of Rampisham raises some big questions.Such as: Isn’t it just a stupid idea? And: Is it even possible?"
Some 80 years ago, in the early days of commercial broadcasting, a New Zealand radio station, 4ZF Dunedin, used only seven watts to play gramophone recorded music to its few hundred listeners.
Far away across the Pacific, the Crosley Radio Corporation, of Cincinnati, Ohio, boastedI've just added a new story to my blog:
Nimblenoms.blogspot.com
that its station, the new 500,000 watt WLW, was the most powerful in the world.
As a teenager in Christchurch, New Zealand in the 1930s, my hobby was DXing, searching for lond-distance radio programs. I managed to listen to both 4ZF and WLW.
Where are the most powerful broadcasting stations today?
To find the answer to that question I consulted my friend David Ricquish, founder and chairman of the Radio Heritage Foundation, in Wellington, New Zealand's capital city. He has compiled an amazing database of thousands of stations around the world.
Here's his surprising response:
These seem to be the 4 largest SW sites by kW power.
1. Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, Kamalabad site = 12 x500kW, 1 x 350kW, 3 x 250kW, 10 x 100kW = 8,100kW
2. RTRN [Russia], Taldom site = 3 x 1000kW, 4 x 250kW, 12 x 100kW =5,200kW
3. Babcock International, Rampisham UK site = 10 x 500kW = 5,000kW
4. SARFT [China], Urumqi, Xinjiang site = 8 x 500kW, 9 x 100kW =4,900kW
LINKS
BBC prediction: http://www.realwestdorset.co.uk/wordpress/08/2011/dorset-bbc-world-service-rampisham-radio-transmitting-station-clo
http://www.realwestdorset.co.uk/wordpress/08/2011/dorset-bbc-world-service-rampisham-radio-transmitting-station-clo
Hard-Core-DX: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/archives/july2001.html
Middle East on Shortwave:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bdxc
Sunday Mail, Brisbane (1938)
http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/images/roughrodeo.gif
RTRN Russia: http://www.rtrn.it/
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Two towns: HAMM and TWO EGG
TWO EGG is the quirky name of a small town in Florida. Its official website says there are more stories on how it changed its name from Allison than it has people. And HAMM is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Since we first wrote about amusing or peculiar names of towns a decade ago, readers around the world have told us of dozens of their favorite weird place names, .
Here are some of their e-mails:
Have you heard of the town of HOTAZEL in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa? It gets quite warm there!
- RG, (Johannesburg, South Africa).
In addition to HELL, Michigan has a town named PARADISE. (It's in the Upper Peninsula, on the shore of Lake Superior.) When we bought a cottage there, one of the previous owner's wall decorations was a road map of Michigan with the route from Hell to Paradise highlighted and "325 Miles from Hell to Paradise" scrawled across the top! Oh, and while Pennsylvania has INTERCOURSE, Michigan has a CLIMAX.
- Barbara Bushey.
There is a CLIMAX, Michigan that may be worth a visit... or maybe CHRISTMAS, Michigan as well.
- Nathan Miller.
Here in Arizona we have WHY without a question mark, and a place between Wickenburg and Wikieup called NOTHING. It really is a nothing. New Mexico boasts TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES, named after a long since gone radio program.
- Stanley Dickes.
Here's some more for you: DIMBOX, GODLY, CUT AND SHOOT (all in Texas), and one of my favorites: TOAD SUCK, Arkansas.
- Don Cooper.
Just read about the various town names, and thought I'd send a greeting from my town of ROUGH AND READY, California.
- Rosie Mariani.
[Reminds us of Ben Ryan's 1926 song, Heart of My Heart:
When we were kids
On the corner of the street,
We were Rough and Ready guys,
But oh, how we could harmonize!]
My father knew the man who named ZZYZYX (I am sure it is pronounced "zai-zix"). As I recall, he was a bit of a promoter, who wanted to create a town there, and sell land. He selected the name in order to create interest. I guess he succeeded!
- Radha, St John, U S Virgin Islands.
Hello from the UK. It is quite common to live in HOPE around here - there's one in Montgomeryshire, Wales and the other just over the border in Shropshire, England. There is also a village in Shropshire called GREAT NESS. I always thought I was destined for greatness but never could afford a house there.
- Chris Bartram.
You missed mentioning PARADISE, Pennsylvania, which is not far from INTERCOURSE,Pennsylvania: and both are also close to BIRD-IN-HAND, Pennsylvania.
- Lisa A. Hallett.
You don't have to go to California to find PARADISE. Near LANCASTER, Pennsylvania you can find both PARADISE and INTERCOURSE. On a highway there is a sign there pointing in two different directions, one to PARADISE and the other to INTERCOURSE. Most people opt to take the road to INTERCOURSE, out of curiosity. I am not sure if they go straight to PARADISE after INTERCOURSE or return disappointed and then opt to go to PARADISE. The three cities, BiRD IN HAND, INTERCOURSE, and PARADISE are all within 5 miles of each other.
- Sethuraman Subramanian.
Another place to visit, other than HELL, is DILDO, Newfoundland
- Dave Ritchie, Canada.
I have been to Intercourse, PA. If you love fun place names, you should check out a map of Newfoundland. My mother-in-law is from there, and we have visited. Some are just picturesque, like Harbour Grace, Bay Bulls, Tickle Cove, Tickle Beach, Tickle Harbour, Leading Tickles (a jolly bunch those Newfies must be), Cupids, Mosquito, Goblin, Garnish, Harbour Buffet (to go with the Garnish, perhaps?), Goobies, Come by Chance, Renews, Dildo, Dildo South, Bacon, Old Shop, Gin Cove, Doting Cove, Noggin, Tilting, Little Seldom (emphatic redundancy, perhaps), Joe Batt's Arm, Too Good Arm, Virgin Arm, Whale's Gulch, Lushes Bight, Black Duck, Jerrys Nose, Witless Bay, and Blow Me Down.
Some tell stories of great hardship, which is remarkable considering the penchant of most New World pioneers to give their godforsaken new home a name with some gloss and hopeful (if not outright deceptive) - but what do we make of Hungry Hill, Burnt Islands, Little Burnt Bay, Isle aux Morts, Camp Boggy, Bareneed, Farewell, Gallows Cove, and such? But some must have found contentment and prosperity there. There are Heart's Content, Heart's Delight, and Heart's Desire, all just across Trinity Bay from Little Heart's Ease. - Randal Allred.
There is also a town in Norway, just north of Trondheim, called Hell. They get no shortage of English speaking visitors in this little town who go there just so they can say they have gone to Hell and back.
- Kerilyn Cole.
Paradise, Pennsylvania and Hell, Michigan seem to call for Purgatory, Maine. It is actually quite a disappointing place. Its corner grocery store didn't even have post cards celebrating the name!
- James and Helen Miller.
We found two websites with huge lists of even weirder U.S. place names.
First, we discovered a story written by Sherry Stripling in the Seattle Times, which mentions Scratch Ankle, Alabama; Good Grief, Idaho; Panic, Pennsylvania; Stinking Point, Virginia; Yum Yum, Tennessee (reminds us of Australia's Woy Woy and Wagga Wagga); Dynamite, Washington, and Tranquility, California, Nothing, Arizona and Zero, Montana.
Sherry was reviewing New York photographer Gary Gladstone's book, Passing Gas: And Other Towns Along the American Highway (Ten Speed Press, $19.95), so named because people who drive through Gas, Kansas, are told not to blink or they'll pass Gas.
Eager to learn more about Gary's book, we found a detailed description of it, plus a gallery of superb photos, on his website
"I drove 38,000 miles visiting tiny places with funny names," says Gary. "I made a portrait in a different town every day and posted daily journals on the Photo News Network website. It is now a book."
His photos have appeared in Life, Look and the Saturday Evening Post. Making nine trips in five years, he shot 21,000 frames of film, and visited (among many other odd places) Ding Dong, Surprise, Goofy Ridge and Monkey's Eyebrow.
If you visit his website, be sure to look at his remarkable slide show. There are great pictures of Gas, Purgatory, Tightwad, Rough and Ready, Sweetlips, Good Grief, Bitter End, Suck Egg Hollow and Lovely.
LINK.
Two Egg, Florida: http://www.twoeggfla.com/
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Condom, Intercourse and other strange places
From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia. <ericshackleATbigpond.com>
Most countries have towns with strange names. PITY ME is in England, INTERCOURSE is in Pennsylvania, HELL is in Michigan, while MORON is in Cuba; PARADISE is in California, while SURFERS PARADISE is in Australia.
"INTERCOURSE is the hub where the Amish and local folks do their business and host thousands of visitors each year," says that town centre's website.
"The beautiful Amish farms surround the Village.... INTERCOURSE is [near] our sister Villages of BIRD-IN-HAND and STRASBURG .
"The Village stands as a clear reminder of our traditional American heritage as people live by a simpler way of life. Formerly known as CROSS KEYS from a noted old tavern, this village was founded in 1754."
No one knows for sure how INTERCOURSE acquired its name, says the Centre. It cites these theories:
The entrance to a racecourse east of the town was known as ENTERCOURSE, which gradually evolved into INTERCOURSE, the name given to the town in 1814.
Two major roads crossed there. The junction could have led to the town being called CROSS KEYS or eventually INTERCOURSE.
"Old English" language was more common in 1814. Intercourse referred to the "fellowship" or social interaction and friendship which was so much a part of an agricultural village and culture at that time.
So much for Intercourse. Now what about PITY ME? My friend Ian Scott-Parker, an Englishman living in HURRICANE, Utah, used to live near that oddly-named English village just north of DURHAM (pronouced Durrum).
He recalled other odd names: "COCKERMOUTH and GREAT COCKUP are always worth a giggle," he said. "The Scottish town of ECCLEFECHAN (birthplace of Thomas Carlyle), not far north of Carlisle, seems to please, though I never figured out why; visitors to Cumbria are amazed to find that TORPENHOW is pronounced Trapenna, and the delightful town of APPLETREEWICK in North Yorkshire is pronounced Apptrick."
British historian David Simpson says "It has been suggested PITY ME was the site of a small lake or 'mere' and that the name means Petit Mere, Petty Mere or Peaty Mere.
"A more fanciful suggestion is that St Cuthbert's coffin was dropped there by wandering monks on their way to Durham. The miracle-working saint is said to have pleaded with the monks to be more careful and take pity on him.
"Another suggestion is that PITY ME is the cry of the Peewits (or Lapwings) which inhabit the area. Other PITY MEs can be found in the north of England, including a small place near BARRASFORD in the North Tyne valley, and a PITY ME near BRADBURY in south Durham."
Yorkshire boasts the villages of CRACKPOT, FANGFOSS, SCAGGLETHORPE, BLUBBERHOUSES, SLAPE WATH, WETWANG and GREAT FRYUP.
Across the Atlantic, there's a place named HELL in Michigan. "Tucked away as it is amidst the hills, creeks, and rivers, HELL maintains a strange combination of notoriety and attraction," says the hell2u.com website. "People come to visit, to see HELL, to say they've been to HELL and back."
It says there are two theories as to how the town gained its name in the early 1830s.
Theory # 1: Two German travelers slid out of a curtained stagecoach one sunny summer afternoon, and one said to the other, "So schoene hell." "Hell," in the German language, means bright and beautiful. Those who overheard the visitors' comments had a bit of a laugh and shared the story with the other locals, who [promptly adopted the name for their village].
Theory # 2: The area in which HELL exists is pretty low and swampy. Traveling through the area would have been wetter, darker, more convoluted, and certainly denser with mosquitoes than other legs of the journey. River traders would have had to portage between the Huron and the Grand River systems near the present location of Hell. You can picture them pulling their canoes, heavy with provisions and beaver pelts, through the underbrush, muttering and swatting bugs as they fought to get to the banks of the next river.
In California, there's a place named ZZYZYX (just the place for a quiet zizz).
Other countries have place names which sound strange to English-speaking visitors. Cuba, for instance, has a town called MORON. It has a population of 50,000. What do they call themselves?
Readers of the Sydney Morning Herald's quirky Column 8 trivia pagecontributed these imaginary yet familiar place names:
Going to Buggery
Drinking in Moderation
Living in Sin
Living in Exile
Living in Poverty
Living in Hope
Taking Care
Taking Umbrage
Dying in Vain
Placed in Jeopardy
Bombing at Random
Escapees at Large
RANDOM HARVEST
Random has its place in history, says Ian Hunt, of Carlingford. After a foggy night during the World War II blitz, he says, the BBC reported that German planes had dropped their bombs at random in south-east Britain. That afternoon, the German propaganda broadcasts proudly boasted that "the town of Random has been heavily bombed".
We're reminded, too, that in the 1944 northern Burma campaign around Myitkina, the US forces, having captured the airfield, grandly announced they had captured the town, where the Chindits were still fighting. It's said a message went out that the "the British have taken umbrage". The Americans couldn't find Umbrage on the map. -- Sydney Morning Herald.
Link
Intercourse: http://www.800padutch.com/intercourse.shtml
Most countries have towns with strange names. PITY ME is in England, INTERCOURSE is in Pennsylvania, HELL is in Michigan, while MORON is in Cuba; PARADISE is in California, while SURFERS PARADISE is in Australia.
"INTERCOURSE is the hub where the Amish and local folks do their business and host thousands of visitors each year," says that town centre's website.
"The beautiful Amish farms surround the Village.... INTERCOURSE is [near] our sister Villages of BIRD-IN-HAND and STRASBURG .
"The Village stands as a clear reminder of our traditional American heritage as people live by a simpler way of life. Formerly known as CROSS KEYS from a noted old tavern, this village was founded in 1754."
No one knows for sure how INTERCOURSE acquired its name, says the Centre. It cites these theories:
The entrance to a racecourse east of the town was known as ENTERCOURSE, which gradually evolved into INTERCOURSE, the name given to the town in 1814.
Two major roads crossed there. The junction could have led to the town being called CROSS KEYS or eventually INTERCOURSE.
"Old English" language was more common in 1814. Intercourse referred to the "fellowship" or social interaction and friendship which was so much a part of an agricultural village and culture at that time.
So much for Intercourse. Now what about PITY ME? My friend Ian Scott-Parker, an Englishman living in HURRICANE, Utah, used to live near that oddly-named English village just north of DURHAM (pronouced Durrum).
He recalled other odd names: "COCKERMOUTH and GREAT COCKUP are always worth a giggle," he said. "The Scottish town of ECCLEFECHAN (birthplace of Thomas Carlyle), not far north of Carlisle, seems to please, though I never figured out why; visitors to Cumbria are amazed to find that TORPENHOW is pronounced Trapenna, and the delightful town of APPLETREEWICK in North Yorkshire is pronounced Apptrick."
British historian David Simpson says "It has been suggested PITY ME was the site of a small lake or 'mere' and that the name means Petit Mere, Petty Mere or Peaty Mere.
"A more fanciful suggestion is that St Cuthbert's coffin was dropped there by wandering monks on their way to Durham. The miracle-working saint is said to have pleaded with the monks to be more careful and take pity on him.
"Another suggestion is that PITY ME is the cry of the Peewits (or Lapwings) which inhabit the area. Other PITY MEs can be found in the north of England, including a small place near BARRASFORD in the North Tyne valley, and a PITY ME near BRADBURY in south Durham."
Yorkshire boasts the villages of CRACKPOT, FANGFOSS, SCAGGLETHORPE, BLUBBERHOUSES, SLAPE WATH, WETWANG and GREAT FRYUP.
Across the Atlantic, there's a place named HELL in Michigan. "Tucked away as it is amidst the hills, creeks, and rivers, HELL maintains a strange combination of notoriety and attraction," says the hell2u.com website. "People come to visit, to see HELL, to say they've been to HELL and back."
It says there are two theories as to how the town gained its name in the early 1830s.
Theory # 1: Two German travelers slid out of a curtained stagecoach one sunny summer afternoon, and one said to the other, "So schoene hell." "Hell," in the German language, means bright and beautiful. Those who overheard the visitors' comments had a bit of a laugh and shared the story with the other locals, who [promptly adopted the name for their village].
Theory # 2: The area in which HELL exists is pretty low and swampy. Traveling through the area would have been wetter, darker, more convoluted, and certainly denser with mosquitoes than other legs of the journey. River traders would have had to portage between the Huron and the Grand River systems near the present location of Hell. You can picture them pulling their canoes, heavy with provisions and beaver pelts, through the underbrush, muttering and swatting bugs as they fought to get to the banks of the next river.
In California, there's a place named ZZYZYX (just the place for a quiet zizz).
Other countries have place names which sound strange to English-speaking visitors. Cuba, for instance, has a town called MORON. It has a population of 50,000. What do they call themselves?
Readers of the Sydney Morning Herald's quirky Column 8 trivia pagecontributed these imaginary yet familiar place names:
Going to Buggery
Drinking in Moderation
Living in Sin
Living in Exile
Living in Poverty
Living in Hope
Taking Care
Taking Umbrage
Dying in Vain
Placed in Jeopardy
Bombing at Random
Escapees at Large
RANDOM HARVEST
Random has its place in history, says Ian Hunt, of Carlingford. After a foggy night during the World War II blitz, he says, the BBC reported that German planes had dropped their bombs at random in south-east Britain. That afternoon, the German propaganda broadcasts proudly boasted that "the town of Random has been heavily bombed".
We're reminded, too, that in the 1944 northern Burma campaign around Myitkina, the US forces, having captured the airfield, grandly announced they had captured the town, where the Chindits were still fighting. It's said a message went out that the "the British have taken umbrage". The Americans couldn't find Umbrage on the map. -- Sydney Morning Herald.
Link
Intercourse: http://www.800padutch.com/intercourse.shtml
Thursday, 19 April 2012
GRANMA: Cuban Newspaper's Strange Name
From ERIC SHACKLE, in Sydney, Australia.
Every Cuban knows Granma. It's the strange title of the nation's leading daily newspaper. How did a Spanish-language newspaper acquire that charming English language title? It took a long time and many e-mails to discover the details.
Granma was the name of the 38ft. motor yacht in which Fidel Castro and his men sailed from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 to start a revolution.
Castro had been exiled to Mexico. where he joined forces with Che Guevara, a young Argentine doctor who had abandoned his profession and his native land in an ill-fated bid to help the world's poor.
Castro bought the yacht Granma from a Texan yachtsman, who had named it after his beloved grandmother.
With a small group of supporters, Castro and Guevara crossed the Caribbean in the decrepit and leaking boat, vowing to invade Cuba and overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista.
"On December 2, 1956, the Granma cabin cruiser arrived on the eastern coast of Cuba, at Los Cayuelos, two kilometers from Las Coloradas beach," Granma International recalled in 2000, on the 45th anniversary of the landing.
"It had left from Tuxpan, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, on November 25, with 82 men aboard, commanded by Fidel Castro.
"The purpose of the voyage was to return to Cuba and initiate the war for the island's definite independence."Landing in a hostile swamp, in a province now also named Granma, losing most of their party, the survivors fought their way to the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range in south-east Cuba.
"Two years later, after a guerrilla campaign in which Guevara was named comandante, the insurgents entered Havana and launched the first and only successful socialist revolution in the Americas."
Granma newspaper was established in 1965 by the merger of two major publications: Hoy (Spanish for Today), the organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Revolucion, the daily newspaper of Castro's 26th of July movement.
Because of Cuba's foreign currency problems, shortages of paper and ink have affected even government-owned media. Granma's circulation is now only a quarter of its 1990 peak of 1.6 million copies daily.
The newspaper also publishes a weekly international edition and two other official weeklies (Juventud Nacion on Sundays, and Trabajadores on Mondays), as well as various provincial sheets.
Sixty years ago, the Cuban people were among the most informed in the were among the most informed in the world, having a choice of 58 daily newspapers during the late 1950s, according to the UN Statistical Yearbook.
Despite its small size, that placed Cuba behind only Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico in the region. By 1992, government controls had reduced the number of dailies to 17.
Granma's website offers an impressive list of news stories in Spanish, and a link to Granma Internacional, which deserves an award as one of the world's most comprehensive multi-lingual sites.
The newspaper's weekly edition offers an array of news stories, facts, figures, politics and economy in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and German.
Granma has its critics on the Internet. A report (in German) from "independent journalists in Cuba" says the paper is "the Party Gazette which is distributed throughout the country and which is the only and worst Gazette in the Republic. The page-long speeches of the Great Leader are also useful for toilet paper."
What happened to the historic yacht named Granma? It rests behind thick layers of glass outside the Museum of the Revolution in Havana.
A Cuban Government website says that one of Havana's tourist attractions is the Museum of the Revolution and Granma Memorial, adding, in halting English: "In the exterior areas it is the Memorial Yate Granma, where is exhibited, protected by an inmense (sic) glass case, the ship used by Fidel Castro and over 80 combatants in the return to Cuba from the exile in Mexico."
The current issue of Granma when I wrote this article (April 17, 2012) says:
DECLARATION OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT
For our second independence
THE Summit held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, gave evidence of the ever-growing abyss that exists between "Our America", as Martà called it, and the "turbulent and brutal North that despises us." Cartagena witnessed a rebellion of Latin America and the Caribbean against the imposition made by "one and a half governments" which applied their imperial veto to paragraphs in the Draft Final Declaration of the so-called Summit of the Americas which demanded an end to the blockade and Cuba’s exclusion from hemispheric events.-----------------
"Though Cuba is not democratic, a majority of nations in the hemisphere support its participation in future summits. The U.S. and Canada oppose this, saying Cuba needs to undergo political and human rights reforms".-- Voice of America.
Granma website:http://www.granma.cu/ingles/
Photos of Yacht Granma:https://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&cp=19&gs_id=22&xhr=t&q=photos+yacht+granma&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=photos+yacht+granma&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=8211ac86b7427ec4
Every Cuban knows Granma. It's the strange title of the nation's leading daily newspaper. How did a Spanish-language newspaper acquire that charming English language title? It took a long time and many e-mails to discover the details.
Granma was the name of the 38ft. motor yacht in which Fidel Castro and his men sailed from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 to start a revolution.
Castro had been exiled to Mexico. where he joined forces with Che Guevara, a young Argentine doctor who had abandoned his profession and his native land in an ill-fated bid to help the world's poor.
Castro bought the yacht Granma from a Texan yachtsman, who had named it after his beloved grandmother.
With a small group of supporters, Castro and Guevara crossed the Caribbean in the decrepit and leaking boat, vowing to invade Cuba and overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista.
"On December 2, 1956, the Granma cabin cruiser arrived on the eastern coast of Cuba, at Los Cayuelos, two kilometers from Las Coloradas beach," Granma International recalled in 2000, on the 45th anniversary of the landing.
"It had left from Tuxpan, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, on November 25, with 82 men aboard, commanded by Fidel Castro.
"The purpose of the voyage was to return to Cuba and initiate the war for the island's definite independence."Landing in a hostile swamp, in a province now also named Granma, losing most of their party, the survivors fought their way to the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range in south-east Cuba.
"Two years later, after a guerrilla campaign in which Guevara was named comandante, the insurgents entered Havana and launched the first and only successful socialist revolution in the Americas."
Granma newspaper was established in 1965 by the merger of two major publications: Hoy (Spanish for Today), the organ of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Revolucion, the daily newspaper of Castro's 26th of July movement.
Because of Cuba's foreign currency problems, shortages of paper and ink have affected even government-owned media. Granma's circulation is now only a quarter of its 1990 peak of 1.6 million copies daily.
The newspaper also publishes a weekly international edition and two other official weeklies (Juventud Nacion on Sundays, and Trabajadores on Mondays), as well as various provincial sheets.
Sixty years ago, the Cuban people were among the most informed in the were among the most informed in the world, having a choice of 58 daily newspapers during the late 1950s, according to the UN Statistical Yearbook.
Despite its small size, that placed Cuba behind only Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico in the region. By 1992, government controls had reduced the number of dailies to 17.
Granma's website offers an impressive list of news stories in Spanish, and a link to Granma Internacional, which deserves an award as one of the world's most comprehensive multi-lingual sites.
The newspaper's weekly edition offers an array of news stories, facts, figures, politics and economy in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and German.
Granma has its critics on the Internet. A report (in German) from "independent journalists in Cuba" says the paper is "the Party Gazette which is distributed throughout the country and which is the only and worst Gazette in the Republic. The page-long speeches of the Great Leader are also useful for toilet paper."
What happened to the historic yacht named Granma? It rests behind thick layers of glass outside the Museum of the Revolution in Havana.
A Cuban Government website says that one of Havana's tourist attractions is the Museum of the Revolution and Granma Memorial, adding, in halting English: "In the exterior areas it is the Memorial Yate Granma, where is exhibited, protected by an inmense (sic) glass case, the ship used by Fidel Castro and over 80 combatants in the return to Cuba from the exile in Mexico."
The current issue of Granma when I wrote this article (April 17, 2012) says:
DECLARATION OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT
For our second independence
THE Summit held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, gave evidence of the ever-growing abyss that exists between "Our America", as Martà called it, and the "turbulent and brutal North that despises us." Cartagena witnessed a rebellion of Latin America and the Caribbean against the imposition made by "one and a half governments" which applied their imperial veto to paragraphs in the Draft Final Declaration of the so-called Summit of the Americas which demanded an end to the blockade and Cuba’s exclusion from hemispheric events.-----------------
"Though Cuba is not democratic, a majority of nations in the hemisphere support its participation in future summits. The U.S. and Canada oppose this, saying Cuba needs to undergo political and human rights reforms".-- Voice of America.
Granma website:http://www.granma.cu/ingles/
Photos of Yacht Granma:https://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&gs_nf=1&cp=19&gs_id=22&xhr=t&q=photos+yacht+granma&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=photos+yacht+granma&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=8211ac86b7427ec4
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)