Why is Rhode Island named as such when in fact it is entirely attached to the rest of the continent?
From a Rhode Island History website:
Rhode Island used to be a part of Rhodesia. Since it wasn’t physically attached to the rest of the African country it was considered an off-shore territory or an island. When Zimbabwe sold it to the USA back in the 1980s, the name was kept.
Remember also that when the first royal charter was granted, the full name (that I believe is still in formal use) was Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Little Rhody is indeed still called “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.” The smallest state has the longest name. Rhode Island (as stated above, but I’m going to repeat it for the hell of it) is Aquidneck Island, the island on the eastern half of Narragansett Bay. Providence Plantations refers to the land-based portion of the state, ie the part of RI that Roger Williams settled when we Bay Staters gave him the boot. (I should add that the part of Massachusetts I’ve lived in all my life seems more like Rhode Island than Mass, but thats another story).
Jeremy…
Nobody ever calls me after they’ve done something smart.
Calling you is doing something smart. Do you really want them to try to put out that fire, themselves, and not call you?
KCB’s answer is correct; in fact there is some controversy here in the “biggest little” as to whether we should remove the “plantations” part of the official state name because of it’s connection to slavery.
Saint Eutychus H.M.S.H.
" ‘He is a prince’ , the minstrels sing.
Among men, yes. Among fools he is a king."
Disney Shorts
The Eutychus Papers
Oh God! Not another “niggardly”, please!
Are we also going to abolish the word “virgin”, and the names “Carol”, “Charles”, “Mary” and “George”? Shall we declare a jihad to wipe out all the Slavs? (Hey, at least that would take care of the Yugoslavia problem.)
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
Thats one way to look at it. But, very few of the calls we go on now are real fires. Those that are are generally due to something that someone did that was kind of stupid.
Case(s) in point:
–The last working house fire we had, about 2 weeks ago, caused by leaving a cigarrette on a newspaper.
– Two runs today: burning permit out of control, fire alarm due to cooking mishap
– Last car accident we had, fatal accident on Rte 195. Eutychus might remember this one (happend in the snowstorm on 2/18). A 66 year old man, in a blinding snowstorm, drove off the road in an S-10 pickup and into a tree. Bonehead was going at least 70mph when he left the road. Honestly, who goes 70+ in a snowstorm?
I will admit, you do get the people who come home from work, smell gas, and call us from a neighbor’s house. Or the people who see smoke wafting out of the woods and call us. They’re much more rare than the “I was cooking with my hibachi in my living room, and now the house is filled with smoke” type caller, though.
Then again, mabye I’m just a tad bit cynical 
Jeremy…
Nobody ever calls me after they’ve done something smart.
You could start a petition to change the name to just plain Rhode… but that’d be tempting Providence.