Some Burgs for Lynch
The nearest thing to me that can be called a city is Lynchburg, Virginia, 25 miles away. That is the home base of Jerry Falwell, the famous evangelist and right wingo. It's odd that I would end up living so close to a place called LYNCHburg and liking it. Thirty years ago no one could have convinced me that such a thing would happen, but so far the town has proven to be a low key, pleasant place and plenty big enough for both Jerry and me.
This Lynchburg is not to be confused with the town of exactly the same name in the next state over, Tennessee, or with the Lynchburgs in four other states as well, which are, if you've been waiting all week to know, Ohio, South Carolina... and.... er.....
Is it possible that, following the philosophy of the HBO mobster series, "The Sopranos," those other two burgs have decided that having a name beginning with "Lynch" is "bad for business?"
"Lynch" must have been a popular name in Elizabethan England and Colonial America, and it's too bad that one of their number, a Virginia planter, put a horrible and indelible blot on that handle by organizing hanging parties for people who didn't go along with the patriotic line during Revolutionary times.
Undoubtedly the other Lynchburgs are fine places, but the only one that counts for you and your friends is the one next door in Tennessee, because there they make Jack Daniels whiskey, a more famous and admirable product than the sour mash over which I expect incantations are regularly recited in Rev. Falwell's religio\political distilleries.
In spite of the whiskey, however, the Lynchburg in Virginia, which even as we speak is abuzz with the myriad activities of precisely 69, 317 people, is much larger than the Lynchburg in Tennessee, which, according to my research, is blessed with either 361 or 5,740 souls -- a distinct shortfall in either case. There's no reason why this should be. On the other hand, there's no reason why it shouldn't be. As far as I know, the two towns don't compete in any way, and, human nature being what it is, they're probably even a little irked because they share the same name.
At first I conjectured that, being in adjoining states, both places were named after the same guy, and that he made liquid lightning in the one town and stupefied people with it in the other. But in fact Lynchburg, Virginia was named after a ferry owner, John Lynch, who got the town chartered, while Lynchburg, Tennessee.... Well, I have the impression that all its early history has been drowned in the sea of good spirits that have been distilled there, and, judging from the websites I checked and their disagreements on the population, I would be surprised if the town's good inhabitants really know which of the Lynch boys was responsible for its name. But no one would argue that Jack Daniels is all in the way of an originator that anyone with good taste would need to know, and he and his numerous barrels of product were what have really injected the several Lynchburgs into our consciousness -- or our unconsciousnesss.
This Lynchburg is not to be confused with the town of exactly the same name in the next state over, Tennessee, or with the Lynchburgs in four other states as well, which are, if you've been waiting all week to know, Ohio, South Carolina... and.... er.....
Is it possible that, following the philosophy of the HBO mobster series, "The Sopranos," those other two burgs have decided that having a name beginning with "Lynch" is "bad for business?"
"Lynch" must have been a popular name in Elizabethan England and Colonial America, and it's too bad that one of their number, a Virginia planter, put a horrible and indelible blot on that handle by organizing hanging parties for people who didn't go along with the patriotic line during Revolutionary times.
Undoubtedly the other Lynchburgs are fine places, but the only one that counts for you and your friends is the one next door in Tennessee, because there they make Jack Daniels whiskey, a more famous and admirable product than the sour mash over which I expect incantations are regularly recited in Rev. Falwell's religio\political distilleries.
In spite of the whiskey, however, the Lynchburg in Virginia, which even as we speak is abuzz with the myriad activities of precisely 69, 317 people, is much larger than the Lynchburg in Tennessee, which, according to my research, is blessed with either 361 or 5,740 souls -- a distinct shortfall in either case. There's no reason why this should be. On the other hand, there's no reason why it shouldn't be. As far as I know, the two towns don't compete in any way, and, human nature being what it is, they're probably even a little irked because they share the same name.
At first I conjectured that, being in adjoining states, both places were named after the same guy, and that he made liquid lightning in the one town and stupefied people with it in the other. But in fact Lynchburg, Virginia was named after a ferry owner, John Lynch, who got the town chartered, while Lynchburg, Tennessee.... Well, I have the impression that all its early history has been drowned in the sea of good spirits that have been distilled there, and, judging from the websites I checked and their disagreements on the population, I would be surprised if the town's good inhabitants really know which of the Lynch boys was responsible for its name. But no one would argue that Jack Daniels is all in the way of an originator that anyone with good taste would need to know, and he and his numerous barrels of product were what have really injected the several Lynchburgs into our consciousness -- or our unconsciousnesss.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 1:07 AM
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