[Sca-cooks] SCA placenames

[Philip Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Wed, 2011-05-25 at 02:43 -0500, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Groan... I assume this is a canton of Great Whyte Whey? Manhattan? But  
> which borough?

I believe the Canton of Whyt Whey is so named officially on the books,
but the name was originally conceived by the Viscount Edward Zifran of
Gendy, then mundanely pursuing a mundane career in New York City as a
not-so-humble thespian (with all due respect, a frequent career choice
for many a SCAdian making the move to New York on their road to the
fast-paced world of waiting tables and/or teaching) as The Canton Of The
Grate Whyte Whey. This, of course, harks back not only to the obvious
Broadway reference, but also to the old joke about the folk of Ostgardr
being simple cheese farmers (depending on minor spelling variations,
"Ostgardr" can be translated -- from two different Scandinavian
languages -- in two different wheys -- I mean ways, to wit, The Eastern
Marches or The Cheese Farm).  

>  I'm not that familiar with NYC and where Coney Island  
> is located. Is there a story behind the "Brokenbridge" part?

Only, so far as I know, inasmuch as it's across a couple of bridges from
Whyt Whey (Brokenbridge is Brooklyn). I always pushed for it to be
called the Canton of Ebbet's Field, myself. Unfortunately, comparatively
few of the residents of either Whyt Whey or Brokenbridge at the time
were native New Yorkers, and tended not to get that particular reference
(Ebbet's Field was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers).

Adamantius (getting back to one plus one is twoooooo... two plus two is
foooooourrrr... four plus four is eightttttt... eight plus EIGHT is
sixteeeeeeeeeennn... sixteen and sixteen are thirty-twooooooooo...)