Here in New York City, we have Hell Gate, Hell's Kitchen and Gravesend.
There are other funny, interesting and unusual place names all over the world. I think now "Cheesequake," in New Jersey, just a couple of towns over from where I went to high school And Condom, in the southwest of France (I've been there)-- which, of course doesn't have the same meaning in English. Speaking of English, there's Upperthong, in West Yorkshire.
For a cuter, more family-friendly toponym, how about Soddy-Daisy in Tennessee?
Somehow I imagine that there must be some interesting people in a place like that. How can you not move--or tell people you're from--there without at least cracking a smile.
One of the folks in that place is probably one of the first I'd want to meet: Tom Jamison.
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| Tom Jamison. Photo by Matt Hamilton, for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press |
He bought his first bike as an adult in 1997. But, he says, he didn't start putting in "serious mileage" until retired as a Tennessee Valley Authority project manager at age 50, in 2004. Almost immediately, he jumped on his bike and pedaled over 500 miles to Orlando, Florida for a vacation with his daughter.
Since then, he reckons he's pedaled 160,000-170,000 miles. With his riding buddies, he does two or three trips a year. "I even pedaled to Hampton, Virginia for a high school reunion," he recalls. "They were in amazement."
He's done about 100,000 miles, he figures, on his go-to bike: a Trek 520. From looking at his photo, I have little doubt he'll make it to another reunion--whether on that bike or another, from a town called Soddy-Daisy.
