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

We drove past a village called "Tom's Place" in California I took a picture of the sign just cuz it'd be funny to show my friend Tom... when I get a friend called Tom that is

That so much reminded me of one of the father's 'funny stories' on The Kumars...

B

That's where I left it, I think?...Swine, that is.

turvy

Crossing the border from Belgium to Germany, the first turn off the motorway is a town called Titz.

Isn't there a place in N. Wales called Loggerheads.
"For my holiday I spent a week at Loggerheads with my wife"

Yes there is. It's a country park between Rhuthin and Mold (and there's a funny name for a place too!).

turvy

In scotland near Stranrair is a place called gatehouse of fleet, in it is a street called Memory lane.

well, there's Crouchers Bottom in West Sussex, along with Balls Cross and Burpham. Also Wecock Farm near Havant (Hants) and we recently drove through a village called Tiddlywink on the way to Castle Coombe (Wilts). Also, there's Wool in Dorset which is silly and The River Piddle which makes me laugh.

As opposed to the river Laugh...

F

There's a pub on the river Ure in Yorkshire, called the Ure Inn

B

Really? Fantastic.

Imagine phoning for a taxi: "I'm at the Ure Inn".
"Yes, I can tell you've been on the p*ss but where are you?"



F

I just remembered that Graham Norton took great glee in calling up the tourist office in Wet Beaver, Arizona. Yes, it exists:

http://www.hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=223

I thought it was Alabama for a minute, and when searching on Multimap I was amazed to see these as well:

Reform
Butler
Opp
Hurtsboro
Lumpkin
Prattville
Leakesville

All on the same map page

There's a place in Newfoundland called Dildo.
And Tickle Me Arm.

Ah go on then, get out an atlas and have a look for yourself. Newfoundland will have you rolling on the floor.

Don't bother with the rest of Canada.
It's got a lot of anglicised French place names (like Lordways for L'ardois) which only Canadians can find humour in. It's a dialect thing. The really funny ones are the anglicised Indian names like Mushaboom and Medicine Hat.

Hi starna
I notice that you have a new User number. I went to your homepage but you haven't introduced yourself yet. So I dare to presume you're new around here and offer this sage advice:
Type something, anything, on your homepage. Just a grunt will do, or the letter 'Q' or any of the other 25 letters in the alphabet you might prefer. It can be changed later. But until you enter something the page it is not 'activate'. Once you do then others can post there. The first people to 'reply' to your self introduction will be ACES who are volunteers that welcome all new researchers and offer lots of links and tips on how to navigate this enormous and enormously fun site. All of which you can safely ignore, but...

peace
~jwf~

Crackpot
Dog Village (famous for it's women, joke)
Utter Twatsville
Hoe

One of these is made up, try to guess which one...

Fathom said:

"Giggleswick and its neighbouring town of Wigglesworth are in North Yorkshire.

I can't see how such a location could possibly be the last major settlement to witness a solar eclipse - surely a coastal town would have to qualify."

Fathom, thanks for the clarification - I knew if I picked one of Yorks/Lancs I'd a) get the wrong one and b) offend most of Northern England!

I don't see your reasoning for solar eclipses only being visible from coastal locations. The shadow of the moon cast by the sun 'travels' on a fixed path across the globe irrespective of land or sea. The only obstacle from an observers point of view would be clouds (which we suffered when we travelled the 500-odd miles - some of them really odd) from Scotland to Devon/Cornwall for the eclipse in 1999. And I clearly remember reading in 1999 about the 'previous' UK eclipse (there may have been possible sightings off remote islands since) that was known as the 'Giggleswick Eclipse'.

Anyone else like to contribute to the topic drift here and confirm/absolutely blast out of the water* my possibly erratic memory?

Cheers
rooftiler

*delete as you see fit

Well, slap me for being a pompous fool who doesn't read things properly!



Ahem.
Of course, Fathom, you're right - the last place and therefore (probably) the last major settlement to view an eclipse in the UK would be on the coast...



I only stick in the 'probably' in the unlikely event that the (longish and wide) path the eclipse 'took' from Giggleswick to the coast did not include any larger settlements. Which I had previously assumed (yes I know there's an 'ass' in 'assumed') from my half-remembered (did I say clearly? oops) phrase 'The Giggleswick Eclipse'.

Can you ever forgive me?

rt

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/specials/eclipse99/355059.stm

Not much to ad to that eh?

turvy

Need I mention Brest, the French city on the western tip of Brittany?

There's a village near Darlington called Great Burden.
When I was in school a few years back, we had an English lesson that, for some reason, had us looking at maps.
Much to our amusement, we found Great Cockup.
This is fun!

If anyone's a sad like me, this month's SFX has a map showing places in the world with the same name as famous SF planets/locations, ie Vulcan, Hellmouth, Telos etc.