[Buddha-l] Re: Albuquerque

[Richard P. Hayes]

Zelders.YH wrote:

> Well, there is Alfonso de Albuquerque* *(1453-1515), Portuguese 
> navigator and founder of the Portuguese trade empire in Asia. I have 
> never seen that name spelled with an 'r'.

The town in New Mexico was named after the Duke of Alburquerque. The 
town in New Mexico originally had that name. There are two stories to 
account for the how the first 'r' got dropped. One story is that it was 
dropped out of confusion with the Portuguese navigator. A second is that 
an early sign painter realized he did not have enough room to get all 12 
letters on a sign and decided to drop one that no one would likely miss. 
(People tend to get lost somewhere between the first and last 'u', so 
any letter between the extreme u's is eliminable.)

Owing to its being named after the Duke, the town in New Mexico is 
called the Duke City. The baseball team used to be called the Dukes, 
until the team, and the name, were sold to some other city. When 
Albuquerque got a new team, it was named the Isotopes, after a joke in a 
Homer Simson cartoon about a baseball team named the Albuquerque Isotopes.

Jim Peavler and I have launched a rather expensive campaign to have the 
name of the baseball team changed to the Albuquerque Arhants. We'll use 
that name so long as we are in the minor leagues. When we make the 
majors, of course, we'll change the name to the Bodhisattvas.

The state bird of New Mexico is a relative of the cuckoo called a 
Chapparel Cock, more commonly known as the roadrunner. It is far too 
silly to be a state bird, so Dr Peavler and I are campaigning to have 
the state bird changed to the gadfly. If that fails, we may have to 
settle for the garuda. It's a bird that eats Republicans.

No Texans are allowed in New Mexico. We are a poor but proud state. 
Besides, if we allowed Texans in, none of us would be able to practice 
mettaa-bhaavanaa.

-- 
Richard Hayes