Category: Government
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Gaithersburg Doughnut Hole
I’ve noted my appreciation for reader comments, suggestions and input on many occasions. The quality of what people contribute is nothing short of miraculous. Sometimes an example lodges in my brain to the exclusion of all the rest. That’s what happened with the Gaithersburg Doughnut Hole and I don’t know why. It’s not any more…
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What Coast are They Guarding, Exactly?
Obituaries for the late Senator Robert Byrd remarked upon many things. These included his uncanny ability to deliver vast piles of Federal dollars to his home state of West Virginia. One can debate whether that’s a positive attribute or a negative, but either way it is hard to dispute that Sen. Byrd excelled at this…
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A Geo-Oddity Holiday Celebration
I faced a dilemma on the 4th of July holiday this year. I’d celebrated in style last year with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the spectacular Washington, DC show from a rooftop balcony. How could I top that for Independence Day 2010? Well, the answer is I couldn’t. The only way I could improve upon…
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100th Meridian Initiative
The meridian line 100° west of Greenwich, England, often called simply the 100th Meridian, divides roughly the eastern side of North America from the west. This happens both geographically and culturally. So it cuts directly through the Great Plains in the United States. It goes down the middle of North and South Dakota, through Nebraska,…
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Denver’s Freaky Appendage
Take a look at the shape of Denver, Colorado. You’ll notice an unusual appendage branching out from its northeast corner. Denver represents one of those infrequent hybrid situations where a city and a county combine to form a single entity within a common border. As a consequence, sometimes Denver acts like a city and sometimes…
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Playing Both Sides of the Street
Dinosaur that I am, I still get a print copy of the newspaper each morning. We’ve laughed about that before. However, it’s an old-school habit I’ll likely not break until the publisher itself gives up on the media. I’m no Luddite and I’ve left behind a huge digital wake as I’ve cruised the Intertubes. Nonetheless…
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A Town’s Odd Streets and Enclaves
Geo-oddities exist everywhere. You just have to look for them. I came across an interesting situation in Bothell, Washington, fascinating in its own right but leading to a confluence of events even more unusual. So the situation begins with the city’s placement directly atop a boundary line separating King County from Snohomish County. That’s hardly…
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Charting the Split
I recently recorded a question of amazing specificity, what I’d call a hyper-local geographic oddity that’s probably of interest only to a handful of people. Fortunately I’m one of those very few souls and maybe you are too. I’ll tie it in with a little history to widen the audience just a bit, so stick…
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New York Steals Roads from its Neighbors!
I learned some interesting facts from our prior exercise, specifically that there are several extremely short U.S. Interstate highway segments that just barely clip the corners of various states. In the course of that journey I also uncovered a startling revelation. New York is stealing roads from its neighbors. I’d write it off as an…
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Water Island
Water Island? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Logically it seems that it should either be water or an island. How could it be both? Actually, it’s not a contradiction. It makes perfect sense at least for the Water Island that’s part of the United States Virgin Islands (map). Early seafarers used its name as a beacon,…