I drove from Albuquerque to Knoxville and back a few times taking my daughter’s team to the Destination Imagination global tournament. We always passed the sign for a town called Toad Suck, Arkansas.
There’s a Uranus Missouri.
All sorts of stuff in their local paper. What to do in Uranus? What’s new in Uranus. Get your fudge in Uranus. “Exploring Uranus is an experience the whole family will enjoy”
As a Dane, I feel that Middelfart should be in this collection. Its name come from the fact that it was the place of the middle ferry over Lillebælt.
Wait, what? I’m gonna go on record as an idiot here, because I’d prefer to be enlightened even it it means revealing my stupidity. So:
I’m confused about the timeline/geography, but as near as I can tell from your post:
There is a town in Massachusetts.
Native Americans settled that area and call it Pequoiag.
In 1762 a bunch of colonialists declared it to be called “Athol,” rightly or wrongly thinking this referred to “New Ireland.”
There is a town in Idaho.
It was known as Colton (something not mentioned in the Wikipedia link you provided).
Later, a settler from Athol, MA, declared it to be called “Athol” and said that this name was after a town in Scotland named for the Duke of Athol.
What am I missing?
I know jokes rarely survive the explanation process, but still - can you tell me what makes that funny?
“Athol” is likely pronounced similarly to how one would pronounce “asshole,” if one had a lisp.
Our former house was just a few streets over from Athol Street. No sniggering that I can remember. It’s just a name, here in Regina, which rhymes with …
Something that the Queen has but the King does not.
Speaking of such things, no one’s mentioned Dildo, Newfoundland yet. As I understand it, dildo used to be a nautical term for any cylindrical object that could be held in one’s hand.
Dildo may not fit with the thread, though, because it may have been an intentional choice of a suggestive name.
Social scientist William Baillie Hamilton notes that Captain James Cook and his assistant Michael Lane, who mapped Newfoundland in the 1760s, often displayed a sense of humour in the place names they chose, and were not above selecting names that might “offend over-sensitive” readers.
Okay. As a former denizen of Massachusetts, the name “Athol” seems totally normal to me. Wouldn’t have ever made the connection to “asshole.” Live and learn.
Did Cook or Lane name the town?
The joke’s more obvious if you or one of your close friends has a lithp.
Kiester, a small town southern Minnesota. Named after a local judge.
A toilet paper company filmed a commercial there a few years ago.
Without leaving Pennsylvania, you can go from Blue Ball to Intercourse to Climax.
Clearly you didn’t have the same sort of obnoxiously juvenile acquaintances I did. Lucky you.
It’s really a place. They have a festival every year. The tee-shirts from them are always sought after. Very cool!!
Then there’s Cooterneck, Arkansas.
Mostly just a volunteer fire department.
There is a village in Essex, UK called Fingringhoe
After years of just driving by the sign because we didn’t have time and I was carrying other people’s kids, I had just my daughter and her best friend in the car coming back from their last tournament, so we took the detour and stopped in at the store. We bought t-shirts for everyone!
There’s an Athol in Kansas as well, but it’s not as big of an Athol as the Athol in Idaho.
I don’t know how long ago it was but the older tee-shirts are worth some $$
Keith Urban has been spotted in one.
Guy Fieri has shown up at the festival.