I am submitting two new names to add to the list: Semisopochnoi and Amatignak.
I can hear you saying it. Who?
Semisopochnoi and Amatignak are not a who. They are a what, like Scylla and Charybdis, like Sodom and Gomorrah, like the devil and the deep blue sea, like biscuits and gravy.
(Editor's note. It is only in the United States that biscuits and gravy go together. In the U.K., they most definitely do not, because an English biscuit is not the same thing as an American biscuit. In the U.K., people also call a diaper a napkin, but I don't want to go down that particular rabbit trail today. --RWP)
So what, exactly, are Semisopochnoi and Amatignak?
Semisopochnoi and Amatignak are two islands in the Aleutian archipelago in the state of Alaska. But they are more than that. They have a special relationship, as did Romeo and Juliet and those other famous pairs I named in the opening paragraph.
Amatignak has the distinction of being the westernmost place in the United States (coordinates: 51.270°N, 179.119°W). Semisopochnoi, which lies 71 miles west of Amatignak, on the other side of the 180th meridian, has the distinction of being the easternmost place in the United States (coordinates: 51.960°N, 179.772°E). There are still a few more Aleutian islands in Alaska even farther West than (or, more properly, not as far East as Semisopochnoi. If your mind is not yet boggled, you can read more about the two islands in this article.
So Columbus was right. You can reach east by travelling west. If you heard it here first, you are more than five centuries behind the times.
Perhaps next time we can explore Poppycock, Balderdash, Gobsmacking, and Thor. Are they a law firm in Cincinnati? Are they the names of Hilltophomesteader’s new baby goats? Are they just random words I threw together on a page?
Read my blog long enough and you may find out. Then again, you may not.
Interesting fact.
ReplyDeleteEmma, isn't it, though? You must really try to restrain your excitement.
DeleteDoolittle and Dalley was a lawfirm on the A5 when I used to travel down to London from Liverpool on The Hippogryph. Kidderminster I think but all I can be sure of was that I used to turn right somewhere and they were on the left.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of Chang and Eng.
So far as I am aware diaper a napkin are two entirely separate things in the UK. In fact I've not hear the word diaper used in the UK very much it's usually referred to as a nappy. A napkin is a serviette and is used on one's lap or tucked into ones collar to prevent food spillage onto one's clothes.
Semisopochnoi and Amatignak are completely beyond my ability to read and pronounce. However I understand that Columbus was correct. Conversely one can get to the west by travelling east.
Where on earth do you get these wonderfully arcane subjects from?
Graham, comedian Soupy Sales used to say that his lawyers were Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.
DeleteChang and Eng are the reason we referred to conjoined twins for many years as Siamese twins, as I'm sure you discovered.
I do apologize (British, apologise) for confusing the words nappy and napkin. Social etiquette advice: Never tuck a diaper into one's collar to prevent food spillage on one's clothes.
Arcane subjects are everywhere if you have eyes to see, but I flatter myself by thinking that it is my treatment of them that you find so wonderful.