On 05/08/2018 12:43 PM, Oren wrote:
On Tue, 8 May 2018 12:14:20 -0600, rbowman wrote:

Here in New England

Could you guys not have thought of an original name?

New Improved England? Everybody was doing it. I grew up in New
Netherland. People there didn't care much for New England; bunch of
religious fanatics. The Puritans loved religious freedom so much one of
the first things they did was hang four Quakers. No wonder they got
booted out of England.

Fer cripes sake. Didn't the tyrant invader King declare it New
England?

Ed, wasn't around back then.


supposedly John Smith coined the term. 'John Smith' might be an alias
because he was too ashamed to use his real name. It's an amusing area
full of linguistic pitfalls for the unwary. Leominster and Worcester
serve as shibboleths and Athol isn't a lisped description of the
inhabitants.

Of course New Netherland has its share between the Dutch/German names
and the misspelled Algonquin stuff. Some over-educated dufus went
classical too, hence Troy, Rome, Utica, Syracuse and a couple of others.

On one memorable trip to Canada my father was asked where he was born at
the border. He replied 'Nassau.' That took some 'splaining.