St. Olaf, Minnesota. I only knew of this “fictional” place from “The Golden Girls” as the wacky Norweigen-American town Rose Nylund was from. Imagine my surprise when I watched one fo those College editions of “Jeopardy” and there was a contestant there from St. Olaf University.
Dorothy: This isn’t going to be like the story of Yiven, the boy raise by a moose is it?
Rose: Not only was Yiven raised by the moose, but the moose put him through medical school!
The Lutheran Church (ELCA, I guess) puts out a half hour program of the Scripture readings for the week and classical music/hymns which link to the lessons in some way, which originates from St. Olaf’s College in Minnesota. Our local classical FM station, WCPE, carries it on Sunday mornings.
(Which makes me wonder: Betty White, who played Rose, was married to Allen Ludden, who used to host GE College Bowl. D’you suppose she might have spun off the “back story” for Rose from having heard about St. Olaf’s College/University through Allen?)
–Poly (who worked on the feasibility study for an abortive moose-ranching project back in the early 1980s)
“Mynd you, moose bites kan be pretti nasti…”
-Monty Python and the Holy Grail
“abortive moose-ranching project” 
The idea was to fence in a large area of second-growth forest and on it raise moose for meat and as a tourist attraction. But it was found that it wouldn’t be economically feasible, and in addition the potential of brainworm infection by white-tailed deer would be a danger. (Brainworm is endemic but usually not dangerous in whitetails and kills moose.)
Oh, is it not good? I am so disappointed! My roommate and I have an ongoing discussion about the stuff. She saw some in a grocery store recently and meant to get some for me but forgot. I’ve been wanting to try it ever since Edmund traded his family in for an endless supply.
Well, yes, but St. Olaf’s is in Northfield. There still isn’t a town called St. Olaf in Minnesota.
There really was a Nicolas Flamel; Rowling didn’t just make him up.
Steve Austin, (the 6 million Dollar man to the unhip), had a Ranch in Ojai. It was many years before I found out there really was was such place (may be the spelling vs. the written word?). Anyway, unfortunately I found out it was real on a business telecomm call. More unfortunately, I blurted out “That’s where Steve Austin’s ranch was.” More and More unfortunately I made it worse as I stuttered about trying to save the situation.
God, yes. Turkish Delight. Apparently God was testing my assertion that there was no Cadbury product I would not eat. That was foul.
Some distant relatives of mine actually visited Timbuktu several years ago. They had to fly into Bamako and hire a Jeep to drive them overland, which took about a week. There were no paved roads (and in some places, no roads) and NO amenities along the whole trip, not even toilets! They said that the city itself was quite disappointing but the adventure itself was worth it, especially the ride home on the Niger River.
From Speed: Yes, there really is a 105 Freeway, and it really was under construction when the movie was filmed.
And he really would have been 666 years old, if he were still alive when the first H.P. book was published.
St. Olaf University is in Northfield, MN. There is also a St. Olaf’s Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis. However, the town of St. Olaf is a fictional place.
Minnesota State University (from the TV series “Coach”) used to be fictional, but now it no longer is–Mankato State University in Mankato decided to change their name to Minnesota State a few years ago.
Turkish Delight tastes like gumdrops flavored with perfume–at least the rose petal flavor does.
The place where the Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail is a real place (Petra in Jordan). The building is called the tresury IIRC and there are other buildings carved into the cliff.
Brian
I was talking about the movie with my father and mentioned the scene when they ride up. Thinking it was fake I was about to say what a great set it is and my father said “Oh, Petra. It’s a long time since I was there.”
When I was a kid I thought the La Brea Tar Pits didn’t really exist. Did they feature in Hope/Crosby jokes in the “Road To…” movies?
Oh, man, I remember reading about Timbuktu and Kalamazoo in some Little Golden Book involving trains. You can imagine my shock when both those funny-sounding places turned out to be real!
Unfortunately, their athletics teams go by the nickname of Mavericks, not the Screaming Eagles.
I was in a geography class in high school. Some of the other classmates were amazed to discover Yemen was a real country. They thought it was just a gag from Friends.
And then, of course, there is the ultimate funny name, Abu Dhabi. Didn’t know it was real at first, but it’s a great name. Was used in a gag in a Garfield strip that was later fleshed out on his TV show (He had a habit of getting rid of Nermal, “the world’s cutest kitty-cat,” by sending him there).
Devil’s Tower from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
That would have been some ride. Most don’t make it who try, although it’s probably safer than Air Mali, which flies old Russian-built planes that tend to fall out of the sky. Roads are pretty much non-existent once you get past Mopti, and the trails disappear in the sand. We had to have a guide just to get to the Bandiagara Cliffs.
It would have been a Toyota or a Land Rover, by the way. I think I had the only Jeep in the country when I was there.
I’m surprised by the lack of geographical knowledge by posters so far. I guess it’s lack of travel experience or something.
The same location had been seen earlier in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977).
I was surprised to find out that Hitler’s “Kehlsteinhaus” which was his personal mountaintop retreat during the Nazi era has been a tourist attraction in Germany for some time now. It still stands – in mint condition – perched atop the 1,834 meter high Obersalzberg in Berchtesgaden, Germany.
When I was in the Army, my buddies and I were crazy enough at the time to run up and down it via the 4 mile long switchback road that leads to it. Basically, it’s just one big mountaintop picnic area for tourists. But the brass-plated elevator used by Hitler to get to the house is still operational, as are all the original facilities used by him and other Nazis at the time. (It was also featured in as the object of liberation in “Band of Brothers” Episode 10. )
I was also surprised to find a lot of the set pieces and stadiums from the 1936 Winter Olympics featured so prominently in newsreels from the era, as well as Leni Reifenstahl montages are still in place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
Of course, this was the Nazi Olympics presided over by Hitler that preceded the better-known summer games held in Berlin later that year. Interesting relics of this era that can still be found in this sleepy Bavarian alpine village include the Olympic Eis Stadion (Ice stadium ) located at the mouth of Partnachklamm (Partnach Gorge), where the likes of Sonja Henie competed and all the downhill and cross-country events started and finished.