If you haven't checked out StrangeMaps yet, you really should (The link will stay on the Main Links list). I tune in often but almost missed this July 25 post about a proposed new straight border state back in the '30s. The folks at StrangeMaps were tipped of by some regular readers to a New York Times article that appeared the day before, and the source for the map that appears to the right. The photo at top left is from the Jackson Hole (WY) blog courtesy of the Sheridan (WY) library, and purports to show Ms. Absaroka holding the newly stamped state license plates. We are not told which of the ladies is the title holder.The Times suggested toward the end of their article that Absaroka may just have been a tall tail so we may have to reassign this to our Tall Tales, Damn Lies sister blog.
But on the other hand we might just dig into this a bit when I return from doing some more border walking. One thing I appreciated was that both StrangeMaps and the NYTs added the pronunciation guide: "ab-SOR-ka."
As someone who grew up in the West with its own pronunciation for words drafted from French and Native American languages I am still smarting from some flatlander I met on the trail in the Tetons. He asked where we had been and I said we just summited Nez Pierce, pronounced without the French overtones as spoken by tribal members where I grew up.
"Oh," he said, "you mean Nay Peer Say."
Well, I didn't mean that at all but he was obviously sincere.
