# Huh???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huh/108302>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 10, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huh/108302 "2002-05-10T16:06:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cheezit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@cheezit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezit)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huh/108302/1 "2002-05-10T16:06:27Z")

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From a recent issure of _TIME_ Magazine:

> [@](#):
>
> "1.6 MILLION Tons of material removed from the site of the World Trade Center collapse, whose excavation will end this month
> 
> 105,000 Truckloads that have been emptied at the **Fresh Kills Landfill**.

Personally, I don’t think that I would have necessarily mentioned the name of the Landfill in this particular instance. I just doesn’t seem quite right to me, considering how many people died there.

If I thought it would actually do any good, I would write a letter to the editor of the magazine.

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**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huh/108302/2 "2002-05-10T17:43:08Z")

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Okay, that was unintentionally cruel of them, but they probably weren’t thinking about it except on a factual level. Dang…why would any place be called Fresh Kills? Anyone know the history?

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [May 10, 2002, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huh/108302/3 "2002-05-10T17:47:58Z")

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“Kills” is an old Dutch word. I believe it means “fish” but I’m not sure. Several other places in the New York area have similar names.

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**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huh/108302/4 "2002-05-11T00:57:30Z")

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_Kill_ is an old Dutch word for stream. Thus you have placenames in the Hudson Valley such as Peekskill, Fishkill etc.