Yeah, met somebody from Washington State yesterday. & found out where the Puget Sound was. Not sure where i would have placed it other than thinking it was a good weird post hardcore band from Dublin about 10 years ago. Or at least they borrowed the name.She said there were deserts in Washington State which I wouldn't have thought cos I thought a lot of that area was known for rain.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 3 October 2019 15:09 (four years ago) link
There's a mountain range bisecting the state! The western coastal part is probably better known
I hadn't realized until early this year that there's a Vancouver, Washington.
― mh, Thursday, 3 October 2019 15:13 (four years ago) link
I'm surprised they don't try to pronounce it Van-COH-ver or something.
― pplains, Thursday, 3 October 2019 15:16 (four years ago) link
Let me tell you something that actually is germane to this thread: When I was a kid, I read about, and we studied in school about, the Salem witch trials.
I was aware that Salem was a place in Oregon. I was not aware it is also a place in Massachusetts. I was never really able to work out how women could have been persecuted as witches in a place that wasn't founded until 1842 but also I was an evangelical so I was used to believing in impossible things that didn't make sense, so somehow I just let it ride. ALL MY LIFE UNTIL ADULT-HOOD.
― There's more Italy than necessary. (in orbit), Thursday, 3 October 2019 15:44 (four years ago) link
that was their witchery though, actually being also in the other Salem
― The Ravishing of ROFL Stein (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 3 October 2019 15:50 (four years ago) link
i don't think that's so bad? the oregon one is much larger and is a state capital, and it's not like the witch trials appear everyday discussions. i can totally see thinking 'weird, but whatever'
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 October 2019 15:54 (four years ago) link
as long as you can tell the difference between washington state and washington dc, you're good to go
I worked at a university archive and special collections in Washington state for years and had at least three conversations with scholars from the UK who were going to be visiting NY/Boston/DC and wanted to casually swing by one day and check out our Virginia Woolf collection. They were all super confused when I explained it would take them several days to get there by train.
The USAF survival training school is in Spokane, supposedly because Washington State has easy access to desert, rain forest, and high altitude snow conditions within a couple of hours.
― joygoat, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:03 (four years ago) link
truly a land of contrasts
― mh, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:09 (four years ago) link
i once knew an albertan who thought the white house, etc, was in washington state. it's understandable. i can't tell my rough riders from my roughriders
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:15 (four years ago) link
xxp My dad had to do that course. He said something about being left in the desert with a potato and an onion and iirc he won't talk about it beyond that.
― There's more Italy than necessary. (in orbit), Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:16 (four years ago) link
i only learned last year that the redskins is washington dc. I'm from Virginia so I probably should've realized that even sooner.
― Yerac, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:20 (four years ago) link
On your left, Oregon. The state of Washington is on your right.
https://i.imgur.com/wI1RpP7.png
― pplains, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:25 (four years ago) link
having the potato and onion seems like cheating imo
― Number None, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:39 (four years ago) link
I thought the Washington football team was the Hatcats.
― tokyo rosemary, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:46 (four years ago) link
you were correct
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 October 2019 16:47 (four years ago) link
My wife learned recently that a certain college (famous for its sports teams) is not "Yukon" but "UConn."
― Instant Carmax (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 3 October 2019 17:07 (four years ago) link
Haha, the Hatcats' location was a longterm point of confusion for me as well
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 3 October 2019 17:31 (four years ago) link
not "Yukon" but "UConn."
this is wonderful
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 October 2019 18:01 (four years ago) link
Ah, the Huskies.
Just like the football team in Washington.
― pplains, Thursday, 3 October 2019 18:32 (four years ago) link
hmm I think that team is Nebraska
― mh, Thursday, 3 October 2019 18:33 (four years ago) link
wait till you hear about the wildcats
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 October 2019 18:34 (four years ago) link
This week I learned that Willie Mays Hayes was the name of a character in the movie Major League and not the seldom-used full name of real-life baseball player Willie Mays.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 3 October 2019 19:00 (four years ago) link
it feels especially trolly bcz Vancouver WA is JUST over the border from Oregon, and Vancouver BC is JUST over the border from the US, on the same road
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Thursday, 3 October 2019 19:35 (four years ago) link
other vancouver facts:
north vancouver and west vancouver bc are not parts of the city of vancouver bc
― Seany's too Dyche to mention (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 3 October 2019 19:40 (four years ago) link
anyone who names suburbs with a cardinal direction tacked on to the actual city's name should rethink what they're doing imo
― mh, Thursday, 3 October 2019 19:49 (four years ago) link
If you drive due south from North Kansas City, Mo., you'll enter Kansas City.
And if you drive due north of North Kansas City, you'll enter... Kansas City.
― pplains, Thursday, 3 October 2019 19:56 (four years ago) link
From what I know about Vancouver WA it's basically a kinda methy suburb of Portland where tax dodging assholes live to avoid OR state income taxes and they have a huge chip on their shoulder about being THE FIRST VANCOUVER.
― joygoat, Thursday, 3 October 2019 20:04 (four years ago) link
I hadn't heard of Des Moines, Washington until a few years ago and it really was started by someone who got funding from people in Des Moines, Iowa. Iowans know nothing of any of this.
― mh, Thursday, 3 October 2019 20:07 (four years ago) link
There's a town in Michigan called Zilwaukee. I'll let wiki fill in the rest:
Zilwaukee was founded in 1848 when Daniel and Solomon Johnson, two brothers from New York City, built a saw mill here. Officially organized ten years later, the Johnsons gave the name Zilwaukee to the town purposely to cause people to confuse it with the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in hopes of luring settlers there to work.
― brownie, Thursday, 3 October 2019 20:21 (four years ago) link
lol
― Number None, Thursday, 3 October 2019 21:00 (four years ago) link
a thousand waukees is much preferable to zero waukees tho so why would anyone be lured
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 3 October 2019 21:07 (four years ago) link
I totally would've done the Yukon/UConn thing
But I did know there was a Vancouver, Wa!
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 3 October 2019 23:10 (four years ago) link
I never thought about any connection between Milwaukee and Des Moines suburb Waukee but now I’m thinking... single instance
― mh, Friday, 4 October 2019 01:00 (four years ago) link
A milwaukee is 1/1000th of a waukee, as anyone conversant with the metric system can tell you.
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Friday, 4 October 2019 01:06 (four years ago) link
we are not conversant (except for two-litre bottles, for some reason)
― mookieproof, Friday, 4 October 2019 01:08 (four years ago) link
In Vancouver BC we have a west end (of downtown), a west side (of the rest of the city), and West Vancouver (a separate city).
― Hans Holbein (Chinchilla Volapük), Friday, 4 October 2019 02:18 (four years ago) link
Vancouver, Wash. in the news tonight. :-(
― pplains, Friday, 4 October 2019 02:24 (four years ago) link
The 49th Parallel is a consciously straight line or that is to say the Canadian border follows a straight line for about 2/3s it's length. & parts of territories/states that messed up that straightness were traded between the USA and Canada to make it straight.Was wondering why it looked so close to being one since natural features would tend to work against an ideal straightness.
― Stevolende, Friday, 4 October 2019 07:36 (four years ago) link
Similary, a millihelen is, as a measure of beauty, a face that launched one ship.
― fetter, Friday, 4 October 2019 12:16 (four years ago) link
While the news out of Vantucky, erm, Vancouver, WA, was terrible tonight, I will honestly say that it is a terrible shithole, having spent a day trying to get out of there during my vagabond years.
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Friday, 4 October 2019 12:25 (four years ago) link
Also, western Washington is gorgeous, along with the mountains bisecting the state.
I've never been in a place that viscerally repelled me more than Spokane. Christ what a dump.
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Friday, 4 October 2019 12:26 (four years ago) link
Actually, "Milwaukee" is pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."
― kinder, Friday, 4 October 2019 12:48 (four years ago) link
https://media.giphy.com/media/vMnuZGHJfFSTe/giphy.gif
― Furter-Bursting Tater Squirter (Old Lunch), Friday, 4 October 2019 12:52 (four years ago) link
hadn't thought of this in years, but as a kid i was amazed that such a remote school could have such a perennially good basketball team!
― andrew m., Friday, 4 October 2019 14:03 (four years ago) link
i’m from CT originally, and i’m fucking amazed it happened there.
― Hunt3r, Friday, 4 October 2019 14:16 (four years ago) link
The language of 2000AD's Tharg emerged from a thing schoolkids did to vex various headmasters at a public school in London. One of whom went onto be among the writers who started the comic.They started as intentionally nonsensical utterances taht just sounded effective echoing down an assembly hall.
The word scrotnig was a badly typed attempt at the word escorting in an episode of Invasion that initially seemed totally confusing then took on a life of its own.
THese 2000Ad Thrill casts have some interesting tidbits and stuff in them.
― Stevolende, Friday, 4 October 2019 21:08 (four years ago) link
That Ram Jam were formed in 1977(!) in order to make an LP around 'Black Betty' which is actually a recording by the guitarist's previous band.
I has assumed they were some sort of Grand Funk Railroad style act from the early 70s.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 5 October 2019 22:30 (four years ago) link
Ha, I had assumed that too.
― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Sunday, 6 October 2019 03:15 (four years ago) link
The original band was called Ewe Jelly
― Conceptualize Wyverns (latebloomer), Sunday, 6 October 2019 10:47 (four years ago) link
ba ba black betty, bambalam
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 6 October 2019 10:50 (four years ago) link