Sunday 29 May 2011

Twinned with St-Bernard-mais-D'oh!

Westward Ho! is a small village in Devon, which was named after Charles Kingsley's book, and is the only place in Britain to have an exclamation mark as an official part of its name. Which is a shame, because imagine how much more exciting it would be to visit, say, 'Birmingham!'.


Anyway, until yesterday, I thought it was the only such place in the world, but that's when I learnt of the existence of the small Quebecois town of...


Fantastic. Double the exclamation marks, double the fun. Apparently the Commission du Toponymie  (and kudos to the Canadians for having such a thing) maintains the 'Ha! Ha!' relates to a nearby lake being an unexpected obstacle, like a Ha-ha... but I think we all know the event it actually commemorates.


9 comments:

kodama said...

Oh, that sounds... brilliant!
Geography would be so much interesting with exclamation or question marks in the names! ;D

Jessica said...

There must surely be places in Africa (i know it's a big continent to search but I am realying on someone to confirm my suspicions) the must have exclamation marks at the start or within the names. can't recall the name of the dialect but I do recall it from my anthropology studies at Uni (some years ago now).

Anonymous said...

I hate to disagree with you, but surely it would be "Birmingham?"

Ankita Sarkar said...

LOLz. Very funny, as usual.

benjiboy said...

'Truth or Consequences' is a town in the states...which should have an honorary question mark...as it is after all a question.

Isabelle said...

How do you know so much about Canadian and Québec geography? I mean, it's not like we advertise this stuff over sea...is it? If I try to name english counties, I inevitably end up with Rohan or Old Brunswick...

KUTGW

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viagra online said...

This is is really funny to see that exclamation in the advertisement, I think it would be a innovative way to name the towns.

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