In the lore of vaudeville comedians, the K sound made a line more likely to get a laugh. So, those baggy-pants guys were keen on Kankakee, Kokomo, and Kaskaskia.
According to my father the joke was really that those locations aren’t in any kind of alignment so a train making those stops would be ridiculous.
If it’s really about a remote place with a funny name, why not Waikiki?
Ray Davies would go there via Waterloo Underground.
Let’s not forget Kokomo and Podunk!
A recent news story about the current attempts to preserve the city’s heritage of medieval manuscripts that have survived from its glory days.
From the OP:
For most of Timbuktu’s history, the legend has been at least as important as the truth.
Here’s a summary of the major points in the timeline:
[ul]
[li]900-1100 AD: Timbuktu is founded by Tuareg nomads a few miles (currently, ~8) north of where an important trans-Saharan trade route met the Niger river (“where camel meets canoe”, although the Tuareg were smart enough to avoid building it next to the river, where the mosquitoes rule). It was a trading post at the border where “Muslim Africa” met “Black Africa”, trading in salt, dates, ivory, slaves, and … gold from the lands to the South. It quickly grew in wealth, and attracted Islamic scholars who founded the fabled University.[/li][li]By some accounts, between 9 and 13 million slaves are transported north across the Sahara between 600 AD and 1900 AD, many passing through Timbuktu. These numbers are comparable to most reliable estimates of the better-known Atlantic Slave Trade.[/li][li]By 1200 AD, the fame of Timbuktu has spread across West Africa, and as far north as Venice. At this point, the “civilized world” knows of “gold from Timbuktu”, and there is no reason at the time to assume that the gold doesn’t originate there. The legend starts here…[/li][li]1324 AD. The inhabitants of Cairo, Egypt, have “been there, done that”. They live in the faded glory of one of the world’s greatest civilizations, and are still important players in Mediterranean trade. All in all, not an easy bunch to impress. They’ve heard of the Mali Empire, but consider the people there to be largely a bunch of savages – when they consider them at all. Then, out of the July heat of the Sahara, appears Malian King Mansa Musa, with thousands of followers and over a hundred camels, on a hajj to Mecca. He gives away so many gifts of gold that the local market is flooded, and Cairene gold prices remain depressed for years – the locals still sing his praises, however. News of his phenomenal wealth and largesse quickly spread to Europe, together with the name of the city from which he had started the hajj – Timbuktu![/li][li]1375 AD: the Catalan Jewish cartographer Abraham Cresques compiles the Catalan Atlas, showing Europe and the known parts of Africa (not much beyond the coasts in the latter, but some imaginative river systems). Down at the bottom, we see an image of Mansa Musa, dressed in a green robe with golden crown and sceptre, and clutching a gold nugget. “This negro lord is called Musa Mali… So abundant is the gold which is found in his country that he is the richest and most noble king in all the land.” The ruler of Timbuktu is (literally) on the map![/li][li]~1510 AD. Leo Africanus, a Moor from Granada (Spain), visits Timbuktu as an emissary of the ruler of Fez (Morocco). His book “Cosmographia Dell’ Africa” is first published in Italian, but really takes off when translated into English by John Pory as “Description of Africa” in 1600. His accounts of Timbuktu are glowing: [/li][quote]
"The rich king of Tombuto hath many plates and scepters of gold, some whereof weigh 1300 poundes. He keeps a magnificent and well-furnished court. He hath always 3000 horsemen, and a great number of footmen that shoot poisoned arrows. Here are a great store of doctors, judges, priests, and other learned men that are bountifully maintained at the king’s expense And hither are brought diverse manuscripts of written books out of Barbaric, which are sold for more money than any other merchandise. The coin of Tombuto is of gold.
[/quote]
[li]1591 AD: Morocco, which has been been buying gold from Timbuktu for centuries, decides that it’s foolish to continue paying for milk when you can just steal the cow. In 1591 Morocco captured Timbuktu. In 1593 its scholars were arrested on suspicion of disloyalty, some were killed and others exiled to Morocco. Even more devastating was the inability of the Moroccan troops in control of the city to protect it from repeated attacks by the Bambara, Fulani, and Tuareg. Timbuktu was in decline. [/li][li]In 1620, a British explorer of the West African coast, Richard Jobson, was told by an African trader (Buckor Sano) that far in the interior, two months travel away, was Timbuktu, “a great town, the houses whereof are covered in gold.” [/li][li]~1630 AD: Dutch cartographer Willem Janszoon Blaeu creates his map of Africa. This image clearly shows “Tombutu” – inhabited by romping lions, happy sheep and goats, and something that looks (to me) like a vole or a shrew. It’s (correctly) on the Niger River, which was at the time (incorrectly) thought to flow westwards to the Atlantic. [Most of the non-coastal parts of this map are pure invention.][/li][li]By the late 18th Century, the majority of coastal Africa has been explored and mapped, but the interior is still the “Dark Continent”. What’s present in Sidney Hall’s 1829 map of Africa is accurate, but he’s also removed the fanciful musings of earlier cartographers regarding the interior, which is now mostly blank space. “Timbuctoo” is still there, however, at the top of a bend in the (still-incorrectly-westward-bound) Niger River, but no European has laid eyes on it for 300 years. If anything, its legend has grown in the interim, but since there are no contemporary reports it has come to symbolize the mysterious and unknown. It has many of the trappings of the El Dorado legend, except that Timbuktu is known to exist. Its past is now legendary, but its current status is unknown.[/li][li]1788: The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa is founded in London; its primary goal is to explore the Niger River and locate its source, but close behind that is the search for the exact site and current status of the semi-mythical city of Timbuktu.[/li][li]Scotsman #1: In 1797, “The Association” sends Mungo Park to explore the Niger. Misled by all of the maps, he approaches fromthe Atlantic coast (via the Gambia River), but eventually makes it to the Niger. Comes home, writes a book, becomes the archetype of the “British Explorer of Africa”. Sent back a second time, dies on the Niger in 1806 (drowning in the river that he had worked so hard to find), never having reached Timbuktu.[/li][li]Scotsman #2: Hugh Clapperton works his way south from Tripoli (in what is now Libya), is the first European to see Lake Chad, but has to turn back before reaching the Niger. Makes it home in one piece. [Later, in 1825-6, he heads back to Africa, lands on the Bight of Benin, reaches the Niger, then dies of dysentry.][/li][li]1820: Shabeni’s “An Account of Timbuctoo and Hausa” is published in England. [“Shabeni was a merchant from Tetuan who was captured and ended up in England where he told his story of how as a child of 14, around 1787, he had gone with his father to Timbuktu.”] Although the account is generally positive, it must surely have confused Timbuktuphiles of the time.[/li][li]1824: the Geographical Society of Paris offers a cash prize of 10,000 francs (another source says 7000F cash plus a medal worth 2000F) for the first expedition – from any nation – to reach and return from Timbuktu. [This was the 1820’s equivalent of the NYC-> Paris Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh, or perhaps the Ansari X Prize.] With British and French teams in competition, the game is afoot![/li][li]Scotsman #3: In 1825, Alexander Gordon Laing heads south from Tripoli and, finally (on August 18, 1826) reaches Timbuktu. After about a month, he heads for home – but is murdered after just a couple of days en route. [Supposedly, the Tuaregs with whom he is traveling believe that he should convert to Islam. He declines, and is decapitated. 
] The house in which he stayed in Timbuktu does have a nice plaque in his honor, however.[/li][li]1827: French explorer René Caillié, who has been in west Africa (mainly Senegal) since 1824, sets out from the highlands of Guinea in search of Timbuktu. Unaware of Laing’s earlier expedition and fate, he arrives in the semi-mythical city in April 1828. He stays for two weeks, then heads home for Paris and his 10,000 franc prize. He becomes a national hero, is awarded the Légion d’honneur, and lives out his life on a comfortable pension. Unlike Laing (whose letters reported the wonders of Timbuktu), Caillié told the truth: it was a small, unimportant, and poor village with no hint of the fabled reputation that preceded it (and which it had once deserved).[/li][li]1853: Heinrich Barth is the first scholarly explorer to reach Timbuktu. His descriptions match those of Caillié, and from this point on there is never any doubt in Western minds that Timbuktu has lost its former glory. Henceforth, its magic lives on only in the imagination.[/li][/ul]
Recently, Timbuktu made the “Final 20” of the competition for the New Seven Wonders of the World. One can only assume that this is a continuation of the “Timbuktu Mystique”, since by all accounts it’s not a particularly wondrous place these days. On the other hand, the modern country of Mali is also home to the Great Mosque of Djenné, which (as the world’s largest mud brick / adobe structure) truly does seem to qualify as a “Wonder”. Every year, after the rainy season, parts of the exterior have to be re-shaped by hand, using the local mud and straw to replace the parts washed away.
Bibliography:[ol][li]The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa’s City of Gold (Frank T. Kryza, 2006)[/li][li]Wonders of the African World (Henry Louis Gates Jr., 2001)[/li][li]Lonely Planet: West Africa (2006)[/li][li]The Golden Trade (Richard Jobson, 1623)[/li][/ol]
Videography:[ol][li]Sahara with Michael Palin (BBC, 2002)[/li][li]Around the World in 80 Treasures (BBC, 2005) [Episode 8 covers the Great Mosque of Djenné.][/li][/ol]
**Hagiography **: ;)[list=][li]Apparently, at least 333 Muslim saints died in Timbuktu. [However, no saints were harmed during the writing of this post.][/li][/list]
First cite in OED for the usage of Timbuctoo as the type of somewhere remote is 1863.
Antonius Block - just, wow. Very nicely done.
News update: Another veil has been lifted from the mysterious city of Timbuktu!
At some point over the last few days, Google Earth updated its high-resolution coverage of Mali; previously limited to a region around Bamako and a few other small “strips”, there’s now beautiful HR aerial images of several new locations including Djenné and Timbuktu.
Here are Google Maps URLs for Djenné and Timbuktu . As I write this post, these are still in low resolution (hence rather uninteresting dark blobs) but I would imagine that Google will update them soon to match the Google Earth database. The new images are sharp enough to count people in the streets, identify loads being hauled in pickup trucks, and pick out the mound of burnt weapons at Timbuktu’s ‘Flame of Peace’ monument (story here).
So, although few Dopers may ever lay eyes on Timbuktu IRL, at least it’s easier than ever before for armchair travelers to get a feel for its size, building styles, land use, vehicle types, animals raised, etc.
You say that like it’s a *bad * thing. 
Even today, Timbuktu is difficult to get to.
Think three days on a cargo boat sleeping on sacks of rice and eating rotten goat meat, followed by six or so hours of offroad driving, finished up by a night spent on the desert waiting for the ferry to take us across the unbridged Niger river.
And it is exotic.
During the day, it’s quiet. Sand fills the streets. All around are tall sandstone buildings, tightly closed with elaborately decorated doors and wooden window screens. The whole place is narrow alleys, strange mud mosques, abandon explorer houses and museums of ancient manuscripts. Nomad camps lap at the edge of the city along with the sand dunes. Even deep in the city you’ll come across a tent now and then. The sand blows. The sun beats down.
By night, it comes alive. Taureg men, with their face-enveloping veils, fill the streets. People cook street food over small charcol fires. Housewives with elaborate headwraps peek their heads out and invite you to their compounds to share dinner. People tell stories of salt caravans, FBI people who “appear and disappear like ghosts”, and other mysterious, exotic, almost unbelievable things.
And you really do feel, as the tourist touts say, that you are in the middle of nowhere. Or more specifically, the edge of Black Africa. That’s really it. After that there is the desert where few can survive. It’s the edge of a world.
Yes I HATE that,you order a burger and the next thing you know all the staff are dancing round in flared skirts and leather jackets singing 50s style music in nasal accents .
Just fuck off and let me eat why dont ya.
I second this. You should be considered for the SDSAB.
I suggest Ypsilanti be added to the list.
It’s the kind of name you’d get if you spat into the Dentist’s sink.