2/27/2006

so my friend Donkey Kong sent this to me: it's a news article on a poll of wackiest street names. It's sorta funny, especially Farfrompoopen Road, which is the only road up Constipation Ridge in Tennessee. That's funny, but I think it's bullshit (get it?). I mean, where is Constipation Ridge? The only Google results for "Constipation Ridge" or "Farfrompoopen Road" are the news article posted a bunch of places. And then this article, which is by the people who ran the contest, says Constipation Ridge is in Story, AR. That's not Tennessee.

The street or ridge (whether in TN or AR) aren't on the US Gazetteer, USGS Geonames, PlacesNamed.com, the Columbia Gazetteer, ESRI's gazetteer, TopoZone, Terraserver, or any other similar site. And those sites are all pretty good - they have Beaver Ridge, the ridge near my house in Tennessee.

This smells funny to me (get it?). One would think that a ridge or a road would be listed somewhere on Google - there are tons of databases and such that are on there. I mean, if it's a private road, I don't think that should count, as you could call a private road whatever you wanted, since it's your street. They're basically long driveways. And anyway, that same article has some errors - there's no Lake Havasu, Wisconsin, for example - it's Lake Havasu, Arizona.

Furthermore, the one that got second place, Divorce Court, isn't in Heather Highlands, PA - there is no such town. It's in the Heather Highlands mobile home park in Pittston, PA, or possibly Jenkins Township (they have the same zip code). And anyway, that's a mobile home park - I doubt Divorce Court is a real address, they probably just have a bunch of mailboxes at the entrance, which is at 109 Main Street. And the USPS website says it's not a valid address either.

As for first place, Psycho Path in Traverse City, MI, that's clever and all, but I can't find it either. And as the picture shows, it's also a private street. Plus the picture looks suspiciously photoshopped anyway - there is no color variation on the sign.

So, I think Constipation Ridge and this article are full of crap, unless they show me a lat-long or a map or something official.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Farfrompoopen Road is not in Tennessee; it is in Arkansas. You can verify that by going to Mitsubishi's Web site to read about the Street Names Contest Winners.

It is amazing how inaccurate information is perpetuated. If you Google Farfrompoopen, you see virtually hundreds of listings placing the street in Tennessee.

Andrew W said...

Dude, I know, Mistubishi's website is the one that has the contest, but I can't find Farfrompoopen mentioned anywhere else, thus this post. I think it's made up.

Anonymous said...

wow, cartographers are party poopers

Andrew W said...

basically. thank you for continuing the pun too with party poopers.

Anonymous said...

It's a real road in Story, AR, or at least according to Mapquest it is. Search for the address, 124 Farfrompoopen Road, Story, AR 71970.

Psycho Path is a sign for someone's private driveway, so it was a mistake to include it as a road.
http://books.google.com/books?id=mTBZP70v6NAC&pg=PA194&lpg=PA194&dq=psycho+path+traverse+city&source=bl&ots=wXmQa5VAlX&sig=TBcGBp9M7n7fbMoxwc0EetRkV2E&hl=en&ei=ngc3SoCTA5uNtgfx1I3SDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=psycho%20path%20traverse%20city&f=false

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