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Geographical naming anomalies

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    #26
    Don't get Ton Ton started on Times Square . . .

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      #27
      Originally posted by Sporting View Post
      The Black Forest isn't really black, is it? More (in large doses) a sort of dark brown/green.
      To the immediate south of Hamburg lie "The Black Mountains". They aren't mountains (154 metres above sea level) and they're only black at night or when crows shit on them.

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        #28
        Crow shit is black?

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          #29
          Aztec NM is some hundresd of miles north of where the Aztecs lived.

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            #30
            Originally posted by Gerontophile View Post
            Crow shit is black?
            The stuff the crows deposit on my holes is, yes.

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              #31
              Originally posted by Gerontophile View Post
              Crow shit is black?
              All right, not jet-black. It's like laverbread, only darker.

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                #32
                A lot of names simply get overtaken by time and sprawl: the American Mid-West starts in today's East, the East and West Ends of London are nowhere near the end, North Melbourne is not an outer suburb but the inner-city, etc.

                Then there are names that stick despite relocation: in Aus/NZ the Far East obviously isn't, but is only gradually fading from use.

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                  #33
                  Finsbury Park is a good few miles north of the area (a borough in its own right in the old days) of Finsbury. But the name is no coincidence - the park was named in tribute to the borough a few miles south of it, and if I recall correctly that was due to some desperate attempt to win some local election votes by reference to the creation of the park.

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                    #34
                    The two that confuse me are the seas that are actually lakes (as I understand the terms) such as the Caspian, and the fact that Guyana is in the West Indies despite being part of the continental land mass.

                    On disappointed tourists:

                    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickle_Cock_Bridge

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                      #35
                      East Grinstead always puzzles me.

                      I never hear of North, South or West Grinstead, nor indeed Grinstead itself.

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                        #36
                        Black Isle is a peninsula.

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                          #37
                          Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                          All right, not jet-black. It's like laverbread, only darker.
                          I might invert that description the next time we take visitors out for breakfast.

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                            #38
                            Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                            East Grinstead always puzzles me.

                            I never hear of North, South or West Grinstead, nor indeed Grinstead itself.
                            West Grinstead

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                              #39
                              There's a certain type of village and town naming elements that are fairly distinctive to Norfolk, meaning a few place names come out pretty similar. On the way to where my grandad lives in the north of the county there's both an East Rudham and West Rudham near King's Lynn, then there's both an East Runton and a West Runton on the coast between Cromer and Sheringham, and slightly beyond there's also an East Ruston... but no West Ruston.

                              I've only just thought to google the latter, and discovered from the Norfolk Churches website that "the apparently redundant compass direction in the parish name is there to distinguish it from Ryston in west Norfolk - East Ruston is sometimes refered to as East Riston in old documents."

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                                #40
                                Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                                Black Isle is a peninsula.
                                Black Isle is so called because when there is snow, it makes the mountains white but the lowland area next to doesn't get any. Hence the name, Black Isle. It isn't an island though, so I'll give you that.

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                                  #41
                                  Originally posted by wiblflibl View Post
                                  "The village should not be confused with the much larger town of East Grinstead which lies 17.5 miles (28 km) to the north-east."

                                  Hmm …

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