Before we hit the road this season, we were listening to the Puzzler on Car Talk and I was proud to answer it quickly for once.
It had to do with palindromic numbers, which I wrote about when our odometer reached 77,777. That was a while ago, we recently reached another mileage milestone when we joined the 100,000 mile club in our trusty ol’ Dodge.
A guy gets in his car one morning and notices his odometer reading is a palindromic number. When he arrives at work just across town a few minutes later, the odometer is showing another palindromic number. How far did he drive?
As a refresher, this any number that reads the same forward and back, like this…
Watching a digital odometer isn’t nearly as fun as watching 100,000 miles roll over the old way, but we were in a rather unremarkable area of Arkansas when it happened anyway.
How many miles have you put on your rig and where were you when you hit a memorable milestone?
Dear Pamela,
If you had lived in Saskatchewan you could have lived in “Regina” as well, and yes, it does rhyme with “vagina”. Turns out Regina is the Latin name for “Queen”. Towns or cities named “Victoria Regina” are simply using Latin for what would be more commonly expressed as Queen Victoria. As the longest reigning monarch and under whose reign included the birth of Canada, Regina was used as a tribute to their commonwealth Queen.
So what were these communities known as prior to using the moniker “Regina”, well, “Vagina” of course. When the Queen passed through on visits they would simply swap the V for an R so their city could still pay tribute while maintaining the prior sounding name, a win win for all parties.
And there you have it!
Enrico strikes again…
I found you through the trip to Rodeo NM. Never been. I lived in Tucson for 7 years hated the crime and the summer heat. I moved to Prescott then on to teach in Chinle AZ on Navajo Land. Lost my home in Prescott and bought some land in Northern NM in a small town called Regina. The locals call it a name that rhymes with vagina. I’m wanting to have a home in warm country and have been looking at TX and AZ. I read about Marfa. Never been. What warm western towns have you found to your liking?
We like the Hill Country, but as Winter Texans couldn’t tell you what it’s like in the Summer. Though this past one from what we heard was far too warm for our liking. We like West Texas too and will likely return to Alpine. Thanks for the comment!
Always enjoy Car Talk entertainment. That reminds me that I forgot it this morning. Actually, I didn’t get up early enough here on Pacific Time where it airs at 7:00 a.m. on satellite radio.