Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Illinois Place Names

The concentration of ugly place names in Illinois is remarkably high: consider Rantoul, Mattoon, Centralia, Du Quoin, Kankakee, Teutopolis, Danville, Normal, Peoria, Tolono, Mcleansboro, Vandalia, and Oblong. Admittedly some of these are funny, but the majority are just hideous.
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5 comments:

  1. GrobsteinApr 22, 2009, 12:12:00 PM

    I fucking love "Teutopolis." Obviously. "Oblong" is great. "Vandalia" seems heavy-handed.

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  2. zbsApr 22, 2009, 1:35:00 PM

    Great post

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  3. AlanApr 22, 2009, 2:30:00 PM

    Yeah, I feel like I could write a book about Teutopolis based on the name alone. "Teutonic" and variants are inherently amusing.

    I don't see how Vandalia is any more heavy-handed. Just means the Vandals settled there, right?

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  4. ZedApr 22, 2009, 2:46:00 PM

    I think Vandalia works by proximity to Teutopolis. (They're about 30 mi apart; en route, one can stop at Confidence, Brownstown, Funkhouser, or Loogootee.)

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  5. GrobsteinApr 22, 2009, 4:56:00 PM

    As an addition, you should tell us how the locals pronounce these names.

    ReplyDelete

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