Truth or Consequences? Trivia Quiz

Answer: To win a radio game show

The truth here is only slightly less bizarre than the false answers. In 1950, "Truth or Consequences" was a very popular US radio game show hosted by Ralph Edwards. During a broadcast celebrating the show's ten year anniversary, Edwards stated that he would broadcast the show live from the first city or town to officially change its name to Truth or Consequences. Hot Springs, New Mexico, changed its name, immediately winning the contest. True to his word, in May 1950, Edwards and the radio crew broadcast from the newly renamed city. Edwards visited the town and participated in the city's Fiesta celebration for the next 50 years.

There must be something about the hot New Mexico sun that brings out the odd behavior. In addition to the game show winners in Truth or Consequences, Roswell New Mexico is about 200 miles east. Roswell earned a place on the cultural map in July 1947, when local citizens and UFO enthusiasts claim an extra-terrestrial spacecraft crashed 70 miles from the city.

Answer: Hell

Do not make any promises based on the timing of Hell freezing over. I can tell you that it happens every winter in Hell, Michigan (USA) and Hell, Norway. Hell in Michigan is a town close to both Ann Arbor and Detroit. Origins as to the town's name vary; a popular version is that when the town was officially named in 1841, state officials asked the town founder what to name the place. His reply was to say, "I don't care; you can name it Hell for all I care."

Hell, Norway, is a small town near the Norwegian city of Trondheim. The town is popular as a tourist stop because of the unusual name. The 1990 Miss Universe, Mona Grudt, came from Hell and humorously referred to herself as the "Beauty Queen from Hell". Confusingly, "hell" in this context is derived from the Old Norse word "hellir" meaning a cave. The English word for the underworld, Hell, comes from Norse mythology, where Hel was the god of the underworld and Hel was his seat of power.

Answer: Kissing and Bad Kissingen

While all the choices are real places somewhere, only the small town of Kissing and the spa resort town of Bad Kissingen are in Bavaria. Kissing, Germany, is about 40 km north of Munich and has about 11,000 residents. Bad Kissingen is further north, about 60km east of Frankfurt. Bad Kissingen has been known for its healing waters and luxurious spa since the 9th century. The location played host to European royalty for centuries. In 1881, King Ludwig II of Bavaria proclaimed the town of Kissingen a royal spa town, permitting the town to add the designation "Bad" to Kissingen.

The family of former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger originated in Bad Kissingen. The family name was changed from Loeb to Kissinger in 1817. Fellow Nobel prize winner Jack Steinberger (Physics 1988) was born in Bad Kissingen in 1921.

Answer: Climax

There is a Climax, Pennsylvania, but in Clarion County in the northwest of Pennsylvania. To that end, the photo is of a beautiful "Kidd's Climax" dahlia. Bird-in-Hand, Blue Ball and Intercourse are all towns in Lancaster County. You can also find a Paradise, Bareville and a Mount Joy town in the county as well. Historically, Lancaster County was a center for the Dutch Amish culture in the US. The community is still a vibrant population estimated at over 31,000 (2010 Census) and an important draw for tourists to the area.

Urban legend states that in the 19th century, when the Dutch Amish began to move in large numbers to the area, the English majority chose sexually explicit and bizarre names to their towns to discourage Amish settlers. While a quaint story to tell tourists, the reality is that the names were chosen for reasons unrelated to any intent to deter Amish immigration. Intercourse sits at an area that is at the intersection of two major local roads and dates from the 1810s. Blue Ball was named after a local inn that displayed a large blue ball to draw travelers. Bird-in-Hand, a favorite of mine, was actually started as an Amish community in the 1730s. The name is said to come from the 18th century surveyors who decided that staying at the small but local McNabb Hotel was preferable than travelling the longer distance to Lancaster.

Answer: Batman

Until the late 1940s, Iluh in Southeast Turkey near the border with Syria, was a sleepy hamlet of 3000 farmers and their families. Large amounts of crude oil were discovered near Iluh and the town boomed. In 1957, the now medium sized city changed its name to Batman. By 2010, the population had increased to over 300,000. It would make an even better story if the city had deliberately named itself after the caped crusader but alas, it is no more than a coincidence. The area is named after the Batman River, a major tributary of the Tigris River, which flows near the city. Batman city and Batman Province are part of the Kurdish region of Turkey.

"Batman" first appeared as a DC comic book in May 1939. The Caped Crusader fights crime in the fictional Gotham City and has been a cultural icon since his inception. In 1960, DC Comics created an all-star band of comic book superheroes called the Justice League. The founding members of the Justice League included Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter and Aquaman. Surprisingly, no one has named a city after the other founding members of the Justice League.

Answer: Dum Dum

Dum Dum is an area in the northern part of Kolkata, India. Prior to the 1890s, the area was called Domodoma. British armory workers nicknamed the location Dum Dum, and the name stuck. While working at the British Royal Armory in the early 1890s, artillery officer and munitions expert Neville Bertie-Clay designed a new, more lethal bullet using a softened and hollow point that expanded inside the target to create maximum damage. The expanding or dum-dum bullet was outlawed for warfare by the 1899 Hague Convention.

Dorking is a town in Surrey, England, that was once owned directly by William the Conqueror. Dorking was the 1907 birthplace of the famed English actor, Sir Lawrence Olivier. Crackpot in North Yorkshire, England, is not named for any eccentric residents but rather from the Old Norse word for cave "pot", combined with an English word for crow. Finally, no one is sent to Dummer, England, because of poor performance in school. Dummer is a tiny village in Hampshire that was the birthplace of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, the former wife of the UK's Prince Andrew.

Answer: Nevertire

Nevertire, New South Wales, is a tiny hamlet 20 km from Warren, Australia. Nevertire was a rail stop along the Main West Railway from the 1880s until the 1980s when many country trunk rail lines were discontinued. According to a paper published in 1929 listing the origins for NSW towns, Nevertire was named for a local farm with no mention of any overly energetic rabbits.

All of the choices are real towns or villages in Australia. Come by Chance is even smaller than Nevertire with less than 200 inhabitants. In Newfoundland, Canada, you can also find a city named Come by Chance. Banana is a small town in Queensland, Australia, that is located (of course) in the Banana Shire. No bananas are grown in Banana, and the name is taken from a famous bull that was very popular amongst cattle ranchers in the 1860s. One of my favorite town names has to be Useless Loop. This Western Australian city is owned by and services the Shark Bay Salt Co and its solar operations. The area was named during the 1800-03 Baudin Expedition based on an erroneous belief that the local harbor would be" useless" due to a sandbar.

Answer: Little Snoring and Great Snoring

In Norfolk, England, you can find both the village of Greater Snoring and down the road a few kilometres, Little Snoring. Both villages are small hamlets but have ancient roots that extend back at least to the "Doomsday Book" of tax records created for William the Conqueror in 1085 AD, as the area of Snaringa.

The origin of the name is unknown though there is no evidence to suggest the area's inhabitants or sheep flocks were loud sleepers. The War II era RAF Little Snoring Airfield remains open for general aviation. Both Greater and Little Snoring have beautiful well-kept parish churches that date from the 14th century.

Answer: Bastard

In 1998, the Township of Bastard combined with the North Crosby, South Crosby, South Burgess, South Elmsley and Newboro to form a unified township named Rideau Lakes. The township is about sixty miles south of Ottawa and is filled with scenic beauty. Historically, the use of the name Bastard Township dates to 1796. Why, that name was chosen is not clearly documented. One logical explanation is that the area was named by government workers from Devonshire, England, where a prominent family had the surname of "Bastard". However, another story says the town's founder Abel Stevens was reluctant to call the town Stevenstown and as a result, a cheeky government clerk said "as it has no father, it must be a bastard".

In heraldry, illegitimate children or "bastard children" of nobles were not entitled to use the family coat of arms. However, many of these children were openly acknowledged by their family and entitled to create a coat of arms in their own right. A popular (though not universal) method to denote the "bastard" status was the use of a diagonal bar from the upper right of the shield to the lower left or "sinister" side of the shield.

Answer: Wales

The Welsh name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch translates to "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio with a red cave". The town has a population of about 3000 and is located on the island of Angelsey off the coast of Wales. Until the 19th century, the town was called Llanfairpwllgwyngyll or simply Llanfair. The additional syllables were added as a marketing ploy to increase tourist interest in the area by creating the longest rail stop name in Great Britain. Despite its dubious origin, the long version of the name has been widely accepted since the 1860s.

There are place names with even longer names than Llanfair. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateahaumaitawhitiurehaeaturipuk-
akapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, for example, is the phonetic English spelling of a Maori name of a hill near Hawkes Bay on New Zealand's North Island. The longest town name in the US, Bellefontaine Neighbors (Missouri), has only a piddling 22 letters. At the other end of the spectrum, my favorite single letter place names are the areas in France and Alaska called Y.