The names of roads and cities never cease to make me wonder, “Who comes up with these?” Palm Springs is in the desert. The only reason there are any palms is they bring in water. Bug Tussle is in Oklahoma. Maybe those are just really big bugs. The city of Loveladies is in New Jersey and Fanny is in West Virginia. Ohio has cities named Knockemstiff and Spunky Puddle. I have used many adjectives to modify the word puddle, but spunky has never been one of them. There is even a city named No Name in Colorado. The creative juices there have stopped completely.

I considered Arkansas is a copycat state. Arkadelphia and Texarkana seemed to be named after existing names, but then so was Arkansas. Or was Arkansas named first and then Kansas took its name from them? Once I decided to look that one up, I learned that the names came from different Indian tribes, though these were not what the tribes called themselves. The word Arkansas came from an Indian tribe in Ohio, and it meant “south wind”. Now is that because the wind blows to the south through Arkansas or because the wind blows from the south into Arkansas? The pronunciation of the state name was in debate, though many people now still do not say it correctly. The two state senators in the 1800’s pronounced it differently, one using SAW at the end, the other saying Ar-Kansas. They had to pass a state law to declare the pronunciation. Wonder who else had to pass a state law to declare the correct pronunciation of their state. I know some people say Ohi-a, other pronounce Oregon the way it is spelled, but it is really ore-gin, and that is a hard g sound. They do claim to have lovely ladies out on the west coast. Did you know there is a city in New Jersey called Loveladies?

I think I got lost here and have spun a full circle. I would much rather talk about circles anyway. Circles are always circles, right? This is pretty much why I teach math. Hope that you have  Happy Friday. Remember to subscribe on the Perspectives page.

I would love for you to share this post if you enjoyed it or have good thoughts from reading it. Leave a comment to share with me and thank you for your time here.