21 February 2019

Oh The Places We Go!


Hello on a Thursday!  The almost-always-good-day-because-tomorrow-is-Friday day of the work week.  This morning it occurred to me that you might enjoy learning of some of the places we have travelled recently, for Three on Thursday.

There is a good chance that you are not familiar with these locales, and to be honest, we didn't know about them for a long time ourselves.  How did we discover them?  Well, I think I have said many times here that Pip the cat is quite the talker.  We call him The Narc because he has to comment on every single thing that The Tim, myself, the other cats, and/or Hamlet do.  And he just has a lot to say in general, particularly when he is waiting to eat.  So a while back (who remembers when), I decided that he wanted to know where his food was coming from.  From there, I decided he would like to try things from other places, so as I was fixing his food, I'd tell him where that particular dish (which is technically always the same thing, as you might imagine) originated.

You are probably not surprised to know that The Tim finds this to be a questionable endeavor, but occasionally plays along, often asking me for details about the various places.  Here are three recent though not necessarily well-known places that provided the origins of Pip's meals.

1.  Pipton-on-Koodle.  This is a very small, somewhat remote town just over the border from England in Scotland.  In the election a few years back, 100% of the eligible population voted for Scottish independence from England.  The primary industry is tuna fishing.

2.  Furballstadt (there should be an umlaut over the "u" but I don't have diacritics on my keyboard).  Furballstadt is the capital city of Crunchova, a former Soviet republic that is now independent.  It is a very tiny principality that is known for producing the best string in the world.

3.  Tabbahtoum.  This city was formerly known as Stripestantinople, but was renamed when the famed military leader Kataturk was installed as its leader in the early 1920s.  Some say that Kataturk was the inspiration for the statesman who created the modern Republic of Turkey.  Tabbahtoum has some of the most famous pawprint friezes in the ancient art world, and was known as the vacation destination of the ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet.

And there you go.  If you like geography as much as I do, you too may want to seek out little-known destinations and learn about them.  I always think that even if I can't afford to travel, learning about the world opens up my thoughts and ideas.

;-)

9 comments:

Bonny said...

This place is a little different, but perhaps Pip might want to consider Tashirojima for his next vacation. An island off of Japan, it translates as Cat Heaven Island, and is home to hundreds of cats (and a few humans). Cats basically run the island, but isn't that the case almost everywhere?

Nance said...

At our house, we've never accepted The New Name, and continue to refer to it as Stripestantinople since a Certain Orange Cat has a very, very stripey tail and a great deal of Stubbornness.

Kym said...

Your post . . . and Bonny's follow-up comment . . . are going to have me chuckling all day!
BRILLIANT!
XO

Dee said...

Okay .... so I can't top the previous comments so I'll just say ---- GREAT POST!!!


P.S. You can get alternate characters on your character map and copy and paste them into your writing.

Vera said...

This is so great Bridget!

Jeannie Gray Knits said...

Great post! There's a small area in our county called Frog Level and I always wanted to live there when our kids were small so that they could play on the Little League team - the Tadpoles.

sprite said...

Love this!

Helen said...

I've not done places, but at one point I was making cat dolls (as one does) and dressing them. I had Prince Alley Cat (in Alladin garb), Cleocatra (Egyptian), and honestly I've forgotten how many others. One was Antebellum cat, one was American Wild West pig (she was a Madam, 'Portia; a pig with a past'), a Mother Goose (goose naturally), but the cats were the most fun.

AsKatKnits said...

Between you and Bonny... I am dying! LOL This is the BEST!