h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's the weirdest place name, food name, brand name or whatever that you've come across?

Always found names of some breakfast cereals kinda daft, like "Corn Flakes". Could they not have thought of something a bit more funky?

There´s a city in Norway called Hammerfest.

What state is Intercourse in? Pennsylvania I think.

I've always loved the name of the Kerry mountain range "Macgillycuddy's Reeks". I often wonder what it reeks of.

Eeek.....

There's a place near me called Ahoghill, though it's not pronounced the way it's spelt.

Westward Ho!

RF

I always find the names of breckfast cerials absolutely terrifying, always have, and the therapist ain't no help.
I mean, 'Special 'K'' waht? sounds like its some kind of radioactive element that we're ment to eat.
Wheetabix?; isn't that just another name for sell our soul?
Golden Grahams? what about the non golden grahams? I thought they'd banned racist comments like that.
And, well, Corn flakes. I'm not even going there
Now porridge theres a good wholesome breckast, and without any need to make refernce to sexual innuendos, cheap political puns, or even taking the mic out of fish.

I've always like the town/city in Turkey called Batman.

Biffy Clyro always cracks me up!

RF

There´s a city in the US called Tarzana. There´s also a Metropolis, I believe they have a Superman statue.
I was rather disappointed to find out that our company´s salesmen in Zebulon were not on another planet, but in fact in a city in the US.

Cities and counties in Texas:

Deaf Smith, Erath, Comal, Temple, Post, Energy, Lockett, Sundown, Rome, Paris, London, Moscow, Dublin, Chalk, Slate, Waco, Hico, Earth...

Some of the more interesting ones, with any information I can remember about them :

Unknown - an error in the paperwork the group submitted to create the town put Unknown as the name of the town instead of another name.

Hutto - home of the hippos, and a cement hippo is a tourist attraction.

Matador - no bullfighting rings anywhere, the school is the Motley County Matadors, and was one of the sites of Roy Rogers' last movie "McIntosh and TJ." That one was interesting too because they filmed the bar in Matador - though Motley County is dry.

Hitchcock - where some in our school thought their mascot would be the Alfreds until we actually went to a game there

Amarillo - which is not yellow in color for the most part now thanks to Stanley Marsh's street signs.

Tarzan - which only has a post office to its name, and the only "town" between Big Spring and Andrews, which leads to:

Big Spring: To my knowledge, there's no spring in the city. There is, however, a ghost hotel called "Hotel Settles"

Canyon - near a canyon (Palo Duro Canyon, home to the musical drama "TEXAS"), also home to Tex Randall, a 60+ foot tall cowboy that is the tallest year-round standing cowboy in the state. Big Tex of the State Fair is taller, but he's not up all year.

Sealy - which, while they don't make the mattresses there anymore, apparently one of the founders did create the box spring. I need to double check that though.

Hereford - home of the Whitefaces and the name does fit the city. It's a cattle and now dairy town.

A lot of the cities here are also named after people who fought in the Texas Revolution, but it can get confusing as a majority of Texas' counties are also named for the fighters, and in some cases the town is not in the county.

There's a hamlet in Essex called Rotten End.

Oh dear help!!!

I've heard that there's a town in France called "Y". Just that one letter.

There's a town in one of the "-guay"* countries called Fray Bentos.

This probably doesn't mean anything to you unless you're (i) UKish, and (ii) "d'un age certain"!

RF

* Just checked. It's Uruguay.

Fray Bentos?!?!!? Do they make weird pies there?

Yes! It's where they come from! And they named the whole *town* after them!

RF

Never liked the pies. Seems a bit odd to cook them in a tin.

Actually... the town was named after a jesuit priest (Fra. Bento), and was corrupted. The pies were named after the town, as the main industry in the town was beef processing. The meat was then exported to Europe, and made into pies in the UK, which took the name of the town they came from.

Still...







RF

There's a place near Dumfries called Ae. It's thought to be a corruption of "Eh?".

Help!!! gets weirder!!

Big Canadian population there?