If you thought your town had a funny name...

I stumbled across this article recently, and it made me chuckle.  Read the article before you continue.

Back?  Good.  I guess it's my immature mind which seems to be perpetually in the gutter, but I just think stuff like that is funny.  As the the article states, I'm sure most of the places mentioned had perfectly benign names at first, but over the years the changing language and idioms cause previously non-dirty things to be dirty (for example the transition experienced by the word "gay").

Some probably come from other languages where there is no dirty meaning at all, but when translated there is some hidden meaning.  Phuket, Thailand comes to mind, and it's pronounced Foo-ket for the record.  Perfectly normal in Thai, I imagine, but in the US, well, it will make anyone giggle.

Then again there are those towns in the US with names that aren't dirty but are a bit odd.  I grew up in Maryland, and I'm aware a town called Accident.  It's ironically  located near a ski area, and I once spent a thrilling afternoon in the hospital in Accident after breaking my arm at said ski area.

Every state has towns like that.  Some of my favorites from that list are Sandwich, NH; Competition, MO; Magnet, NE; Flushing, NY; North, SC; Canadian, TX; the list goes on and on.

Then there are those that just don't belong, like Beach, North Dakota.  If you don't find that amusing, go look at a map.  Aloha, Washington falls into that category, as does California, Maryland (or Pennsylvania).  Seems to me that Santa Claus, Indiana and North Pole, Alaska should be in the same state, or at least near each other.

You can also make jokes about names being appropriate: is Normal, IL really normal?  How aesthetically pleasing is Beauty, KY?  How idyllic is Ideal, GA?  How cheerful is What Cheer, IA?  How welcoming is Friendly, WV?  I don't know anything about these towns except that they appear on this list, but having grown up nearby I can attest that Boring, MD is appropriately named.

I could go on for a while, but I notice that Hell has frozen over, so I'll stop now.  Hey, it gets cold in central Michigan!