Fun_People Archive
25 Jan
A Few Fun Facts from the Upper Left Corner

Date: Thu, 25 Jan 96 17:22:02 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: A Few Fun Facts from the Upper Left Corner

    Washington and New York are unusual among U.S. states in that they are  
commonly referred to using either the "State of X" or "X State" form.   
Obviously, for these two states there is an ambiguity with a famous city  
bearing the same name, so appending "State" (even as an afterthought) removes  
the ambiguity.  Apparently Washington (State) was doomed; it was originally  
going to be named "Columbia" but that plan was dropped because of potential  
confusion with the District of Columbia, IKYN.*
    While we're on the subject, does anybody know why Seattle changed its  
nickname from "The Queen City" to "The Emerald City" recently?  Well, pretty  
recently, it happened in the last 15 or 20 years, and dozens of businesses  
have kept their old "Queen City" names.
    So was it:
	Homophobia?
	Chamber of Commerce Ozzian Wizardry?
	or ...?
Armin Barnett remembers seeing this bumper sticker a mere 10 years ago:

		If this is the Emerald City
			then Toto must be a slug!

 Peter Langston - psl@acm.org - Seattle, WA - http://www.empire.net/~psl/
*IKYN => "I kid you not," from Jack Paar (way ahead of his time)...

© 1996 Peter Langston