Category: History
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Frank Sinatra’s Drive
As Ol’ Blue Eyes — Francis Albert “Frank” Sinatra — so famously sang: If I can make it there I’ll make it anywhere It’s up to you Hoboken, Hoboken Say what?!? Frank Sinatra arrived in this world in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1915, not New York City, and he lived his first couple of decades…
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Egyptian Revival Churches
Let’s start by noting that Egyptian Revival refers to an architectural style. Also, my understanding of architecture borders on nil. So, Egyptian Revival in this context has everything to do with the physical characteristics of a building. It’s a bit confusing because many churches also hold revivals. Those are completely different. I’ll be talking about…
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Humble Mississippi
Most everyone has an awareness of the Mississippi River no matter their cultural background or geographic familiarity. It would be like never hearing about the Amazon or the Nile. The Mississippi is one of the great rivers of the world and it drains a huge North American watershed. It’s a fixture. I’ve enjoyed this natural…
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One Star Many Centers
I stumbled upon an interesting point as I researched U.S. State Capital Surnames. While Austin, Texas may have been the first and only capital of Texas once it became part of the United States, it was not the original or by any means the only capital of the Republic of Texas. This isn’t the first…
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King of Portmanteau
If Portmanteau was a nation, Albert J. Earling would have been its king. By now most readers understand Twelve Mile Circle’s fascination with portmanteaus. It’s the birth of creative new words resulting from the smashing together two or more existing words. Previous articles dealing with this device included Mardela to Delmar and Dueling Portmanteau Placenames.…
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US State Capital Surnames
We’ve waded through surnames that paired with nations and those that matched U.S. states. Now it’s time for the third and final installment of this investigation. Let’s look at surnames that match capital cities of U.S. states. A quick summary of the rules — I pulled information from Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000 [link…
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US State Surnames
The second installment on surnames involves instances that match U.S. state names. The rules are much the same as the national surnames discussion. The source remains Frequently Occurring Surnames from Census 2000 and complete matches are better than partial matches. Once again one should feel free to follow along at home using a shared Google…
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National Surnames
I received a query about surnames that were the same as nations. An example might be Captain America. Well, if indeed his first name was actually Captain and his surname was actually America instead of a pseudonym for Steve Rogers. And I guess while we’re at it, if he wasn’t a fictional character in a…
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Creative Marketing
It’s wonderful when an article results in a comment that inspires an article, creating a self-perpetuating geo-oddity cycle. In this instance loyal reader “Pfly” mentioned the curious case of Guadalupe, California that nearly changed its name to Guadalupe Beach. However it was actually located several miles from the nearest beach. NOT on the Beach Local…
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A Most Improbable Shore
I have a soft spot for low-brow culture. I’ve admitted that before and I’m not ashamed of my enjoyment of certain popular trends. One would think in consideration that I’d be a huge fan of the Reality Television genre. I’m not, and I don’t know why. By all rights I should be able to enjoy…