I am driving to Chicago from Boston with two kids in the back of my car. Random observations:
1. Julia Child’s My Life in France audiobook is family-friendly. It sent the five year old to sleep and the nine year enjoyed it quietly, as did I. Julia got a couple of rejections before getting her magnum opus accepted by Knopf.
2. Ithaca, Rome, Troy, Seneca Falls, Utica, Syracuse…..Why do so many towns have ancient, classical names?
3. We are staying in Geneva, faux-Switzerland, not Greece or Italy. I recommend the Ramada Inn, right on the lake.
Cheap Talk 
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 30, 2010 at 8:22 am
Allan Schoenberg
Sounds like a great trip. Let me know when you get to Chicago.
Allan
June 30, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Alan Gunn
I was told as a kid, in upstate NY, that the area was first surveyed by people with classical educations. We never got details, though. There are even two towns named after Cicero: Cicero (no surprise there) and Tully (Cicero’s full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero, and some people back in the day referred to him as “Tully”).
I’m not sure about Seneca Falls, though, as there are Seneca Indians (presumably so-called because their actual name sounded like that, and not after one of the Roman Senecas). I believe that all the Finger Lakes (of which Seneca is one) have Indian names.
July 3, 2010 at 8:50 pm
misterxroboto
i was about to comment on that–new york has either classical or indian names.
just try and get people to say “chautauqua.”