An interesting thing I didn't know until today

[WOM]

Fun points from the People's Guide to Rochester:

- " Fares started at $29 for an off-peak one-way walk-on ticket, plus a $5 passenger annoyance fee."
- In 2008, the Fast Ferry was voted "Best Misuse of Public Funds" in City Newspaper's 'Best Of' Awards.

[Hot Pepsi]

Rochester holds the distinction of the being the 'destination' for the short-lived Toronto / Rochester high speed ferry; a wildly expensive proposition that connected two cities with absolutely no other relationship that anyone could fathom. A Lyle Lanley-esque idea if there ever was one.

As of 2019, that ferry is stuck in a Venezuela in need of a lot of repairs.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com...la/3308643002/

[Satchmo Distel]

Rochester was central to the first wave of feminism but also today is suffering from horrific levels of infant mortality.

https://www.schumer.senate.gov/newsr...families-safer

[WOM]

Wow. I didn't realize it had moved around so much after leaving.

[Hot Pepsi]

I learned about the Museum of Play from reading this, which is fascinating and strange.

I had no idea anyone would collect VHS tapes of old game shows. Or that Alex Trebeck would make a contestant shitting themselves all about him.

ttps://www.theringer.com/tv/2023/5/2/23705821/jeopardy-lost-tapes-barbara-lowe-mystery-champion

[Hot Pepsi]

Rochester was central to the first wave of feminism but also today is suffering from horrific levels of infant mortality.

https://www.schumer.senate.gov/newsr...families-safer

Western New York has a lot of beautiful bits but it also has a lot of problems.

[jwdd27]

Malcolm "Supermac" Macdonald is married to Carol, who was previously married to another "Geordie" legend, Brian Johnson.

[Hot Pepsi]

Booger McFarland, NFL pundit and two-time Super Bowl winner, is second cousin to Christophe Desrosiers, the descendent of the inventor of the bidet.

[Sam]

Something I actually learned a few weeks ago via a trivia WhatsApp group but have just remembered, and which I've not verified personally (so if anyone can come up with an example that disproves it, I'd be much obliged, because I can't think of one): the Stevie Wonder song 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' was released as a single in August 1984, 26 years and (nearly) two months after Motown was founded, and was the first single released on the label that didn't end in a fade out.

[Satchmo Distel]

Sir Duke, Rockin' Robin, Ben, Mercy Mercy Me, Never Thought You'd Leave In Summer (I Googled but do actually own the tracks).

The earliest might be Stevie's cover of Blowin' In The Wind.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Bit niche, this one. The Canadian "city" of Flin Flon gets its name from the shortening of the name of a character in a novel, a certain Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin. A prospector had read the book and when he hit copper and began mining it he decided to name the mine after said imaginary individual. The settlement that then grew up around the mine took on the name.

Wiki lists two other places named after characters in adventure novels - quiz question for you there, OTF. No cheating.

One of Flin Flon's notable former residents was the poet and novelist Birk Sproxton, which is such a great name. It sounds like the name of a TV news anchor that Greg Proops would have made up on Whose Line.

[Sits]

Flin Flon should be twinned with the tiny Gulf of Carpentaria port of Bing Bong NT.

[ursus arctos]

Twain Harte, California is named after two USian authors

Tarzan, California occupys land once owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs and is named after his most famous character.

Ajax, Omtario is named after the character in the Odyssey.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Twain Harte, California is named after two USian authors

Tarzan, California occupys land once owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs and is named after his most famous character.

Ajax, Omtario is named after the character in the Odyssey.

Tarzana but, yes, that's one of them.

Ajax is a good shout. Wasn't it the Iliad? Perhaps "adventure novel" rather undersells the work. The place wasn't directly named after him, though, it was via the name of a British warship.

[Hot Pepsi]

Twain Harte, California is named after two USian authors

Tarzan, California occupys land once owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs and is named after his most famous character.

Ajax, Omtario is named after the character in the Odyssey.

IIRC, Iowa is called the Hawkeye State and the University of Iowa's nickname is the Hawkeyes entirely because some of the prominent citizens in the 1830s were big fans of James Fenimore Cooper's adventure stories about a character called Hawkeye and thought it sounded cool.

That's like if a territory were becoming a state now and citizens got together to make sure it was called the John Wick State.

[ursus arctos]

My autocorrect is out of control.

Hercules, California is another one rooted in Greek Mythology.

[Hot Pepsi]

Outside of the region, Flin Flon is probably best known for the Flin Flon Bombers.

[ad hoc]

There's a village/intentional community called Quixote in Washington State (possibly Oregon, but I think Washington), but I wouldn't refer to that as an adventure novel

[Nocturnal Submission]

The third place named after the adventure novel character is in France, for anyone playing the game.

[Nurse Duckett]

Not a character, but isn't Westward Ho! in Devon named after a book?

[Nocturnal Submission]

Not a character, but isn't Westward Ho! in Devon named after a book?

Yup. Isn't it unique for having an exclamation mark in the name?

[Nocturnal Submission]

The third place named after the adventure novel character is in France, for anyone playing the game.

Actually, characters. Bit of a clue there.

[S. aureus]

The third place named after the adventure novel character is in France, for anyone playing the game.

Well Paris also features strongly in the Iliad.

[WOM]

Has anyone (possibly me?) posted that the TASER (the thing you zap 'bad guys' with) was named after Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle?

[ad hoc]

Yup. Isn't it unique for having an exclamation mark in the name?

Not quite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!