A - Z of Geographical Place Names

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(Black) Forest (southwestern Germany)

Goodwood, in Sussex, UK: home of the Glorious Goodwood horseracing festival in July/August, and of classic car races at Goodwood Circuit.

Hardesty, Oklahoma - the town is right outside of Lake Optima which has never had more than a fraction of the water it was built to contain. Lots of money "down the drain".

Ithaca (Island in western Greece; the traditional site of the legendary kingdom of Odysseus.)

Josephine Peak - a 8,409 foot peak in Arizona

Kingston - largest city, chief seaport, and capital of Jamaica.

Lana'i, Hawaii - "The Pineapple Island" - 98% owned by Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle

Melbourne- Capital city of Australia's state of Victoria.

Naas - town in County Kildare in the eastern Republic of Ireland.

O - Lake Optima

Located near Hardesty, Oklahoma, Lake Optima is an even bigger joke today than when it was built -- and that takes some doing. When building the lake, it was often joked that the X acrefeet of water it was supposed to hold (I don't remember the number given) would be by covering X acres one foot deep. I'm not sure that what little of it has water is even one foot deep today.

One newspaper article at the time had a joke story about the lake in which the world's foremost dryland fisherman was fishing one day and threw a lit cigarette from his boat and caught the grass on fire. The fire department arrived and in putting out the grassfire, they filled the lake.

Pennine Chain: or just "The Pennines". A range of hills in Northern England, sometimes referred to as "The Backbone of England", separating Lancashire and the Lake District in the West from Yorkshire in the East. The Western part receives some of the heaviest rainfall in the UK, and it's unfortunately where I live!

I like rain. Want to trade?

Q - Queen Maud Mountains - found in Antarctica.

I don't know if you'd like THAT much rain, Eric. I lived over there, for a couple of years, and it got REAL old!!

(Mount) Rushmore - mountain in the Black Hills, western South Dakota; carved with the faces of the U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.

South Ossetia: a territory within the boundaries of Georgia, but owing allegiance to Russia, and under the protection of the latter. Interesting, in view of recent events in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine....


Re. earlier posts, I definitely wouldn't enjoy the climate in your neck of the woods, Eric, nor in other parts of the USA like Socal, but something hallway between those and my own region would probably be ideal!

We had one recent year when it didn't rain at all from the time the wheat was planted until about the time it would have been ready to harvest. In most cases, the wheat never sprouted at all. In those where it did sprout, it didn't last long.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu - A hill in New Zealand that apparently isn't as tall as the name.

Ubangi - river in central Africa; the chief tributary of the Congo River.