the names of these places, man...

26.april.05: speaking of spelling, there's a county called gloucechester, a town called leicester, and a school called magdalene here in england. all three are pronounced funny. i can understand GLASS-teh-shur a little, but pronouncing leicester LEST-er and pronouncing magdalene MAUD-lin? what? and you make fun of us for the one-syllabic ornj?

another thing while i'm on the subject, it's great to see the original portland, the old jersey and the old york (as opposed to new jersey and new york), but i literally screamed when i saw a bus marked bakersfield here in nottingham.

BAKERSfield?? where did THAT come from?

now, i've been told that the cities around nottingham are very literally named. beeston, for example, was once famous for its bee farming, therefore it's the "bees town." chilwell literally means "cold water well." perhaps bakersfield was literally a field for bakers?

by the way, nottingham, i'm told, was named after a tribe called the Snots (the S was dropped not because it sounded too silly, but because apparently the normans who conquered the area couldn't pronounce the 'sn' sound).

true story.