Titillation from Newfie toponyms

Above is a map from p. 68 of Mark Monmonier's book From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame. The accompanying text is pretty amusing. After discussing, unfruitful, efforts by a Mr. Robert Elford, to change the name of the village of Dildo, Newfoundland, in 1985, Monmonier goes on to say of Newfoundland naming practices:

Diverse factors account for Elford's failure. His initiative laked the homophobic imperative behind the renaming of Gayside, Newfoundland (now Baytona[!!!]), in 1985 or whatever anti-Soviet feeling inspired the renaming of Mount Stalin [now that must be a tale] (a British Columbia landmark now commemorating Don Peck, a highly regarded local conservationist) in 1987. Local residents had few reminders of Dildo's new potentially offensive connotation-sex aids were not a regular feature in the news or a lingering icon of cold war rhetoric-and those with a sense of humor could delight in the salacious juxtaposition of Dildo Arm and Spread Eagle Bay (fig 4.5 [see above]. Indeed, jokes about the name were a way of being noticed, and perhaps an attraction to tourists who might stop by to mail a postcard or sample local hospitality during Dildo Days, a mid-August weekend featuring "a live band...enjoyable games and activities, [and {sic}] a beer tent for people 19 and older." The long standing name was reinforced by its identification of several nearby natural features, and the village had its own postal code (AoB IPo), which would entail the cost and annoyance of changing one's address. What's more, some Dildodians no doubt felt the same sense of priority as residents of Swastika, Ontario, who resisted the provincial government's renaming of their community in 1940 to honor Winston Churchill [interestingly, Swastika's mines were the source of some of the Mitford family's minimal wealth, and the ever delightful Unity claimed to have been conceived there]. Defiantly they ripped down the official sign and put up a replacement proclaiming, "To Hell with Hitler. We had the swastika first."

pp.67-69

As an aside, my initial posting was solely motivated by the amusing graphic, but the Mitford connection is one of those things that makes the internet so gosh darn wonderful.

Books Completed in January 2007

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. by Cory Doctorow (Tor, 2003)

The Yacoubian Building: A Novel. by Alaa Al Aswany, translated by Humphrey Davies (Harper Perennial, 2006)

The Eternal Frontier. by Tim Flannery (William Heinemann: London, 2001)

Only three books this month, two novels and popular science book. I'll only comment on the novels in this post

The Cory Doctorow book was the most interesting, a real honest attempt to describe life in a post scarcity economy. It was pretty convincing, and clever, but some of the plot elements and the brain uploading/downloading were too glib. For example, the hero suffers a malfunction in his wiring and he must lose his most recent memories if he wants to fix it, it is explained that without the hardware functioning his memories can't be recorded, but one has to wonder how he remembers anything from before the hardware was implanted, say in his childhood. The technology here, as in several other places was not consistent, and its limitations seemed more of a plot device than anything else. But I would still recommend it.

The Yacoubian Building, was also interesting but it seemed very dated and predictable at the same time. Parts of it approached tedium, and the expository discussion of homosexuality was quite odd. The only explanation seemed that for the books Arabic speaking audience the gay theme was quite exotic. The rest of the book was too predictable and I thought for awhile I would not finish it despite it short length. The terrorist plot especially felt like it had been taken from an article in a newsmagazine, but in the end I was charmed and left it feeling fondly toward it. I was glad though that I had finished it.