The Game of the Name

I have tales to tell about our bike ride from San Antonio to Waco this week, but first I want to share something brought to my attention by a couple of friends:

This photo is taken from a link my friend James shared with a number of us.  (It’s about how the sign for Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg has been misspelled for several years.)

He was in turn answered by my friend Tom who sent the following image taken from his personal travels :

If you can’t read the writing under the name in the picture, it’s the translation.  “The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave”.  Though I’d love to see the “Fierce Whirlpool” in vicinity, what a nightmare it would have been to live in a world where places were identified by names that list the nearby landmarks. “You’re gonna want to look for Themcdonaldsnearwherethehighwaymeetstherivernexttothespotwherethetacovendor-withthemonkeycanusuallybefound.  Yeah, you know the one.”  All I can say is thank goodness for the address system.

When looking up pronunciations for Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllanty-siliogogogoch, I came across the following (taken from Wikipedia):

which translates to: “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one”.  Men, take note:  if you really, really want to impress a girl . . . make her a nice dinner or take her to the theater.  Don’t waste your time trying to get your name in the next longest place name in the world.  These things take time and often a strong oral tradition, and in all likelihood you or your lady will be dead long before something like that really catches on.  But if you really have to go for it, at least start small – get something like a park bench named after your feats: Thehumbleparkbenchwherejerrytheguyinkhakishortsandablueshirtpaidcomplements-tomirandahislonganticipatedsoulmatewhohemetattheclubonawarmfridaynightinjune.  Otherwise, keep it simple.