HAS ANY reader been to Nandasmo southwest Nicaragua population 2000? Or Kyzyl-Kyya Kygyzstan population 35000?
Posted in General on 07. Aug, 2010
HAS ANY reader been to Nandasmo (southwest Nicaragua, population 2,000)? Or Kyzyl-Kyya (Kygyzstan, population 35,000)? Or perhaps Tixkokob (Mexico, population 8,459)?
Neither have I. But I have just been reading about them in the brand new edition of The Columbia Gazetteer of the World. This 3,500-page work, up-dated for the first time in over 45 years, is the ultimate A-Z, a guidebook to the entire world: a listing of all world place names with accompanying details.
All? Well not quite. Middleton Stoney isn’t there for example, and that’s a place which I know exists because I used to live there – it’s a village in Oxfordshire with a park, a pub and a population of at least a hundred I’m equally worried about Kalulushi in Zambia. Never heard of it? A colleague of mine says it has a golf club, a tennis club and grand houses with lawns and gardeners But according to the Gazetteer, there is no such place. In fact the qualification for inclusion in the case of most world towns seems to be a population of around a thousand, though this varies from country to country.When it comes to America in fact, places as small as Moneta, Iowa (population 29) and Larson, North Dakota (population 26) manage to squeeze their way into these pages.
The smallest Chinese towns, on the other hand, seem to need a couple of hundred thousand inhabitants to merit inclusion. But the fact that the USA has over 40,000 entries in this book while China has fewer than 4,000 (and that “the United States of America” covers six pages while “Asia” covers only one) is an understandable reflection of the fact that it was the Americans who went to the trouble of researching the thing.And everywhere is represented to some extent. The preparations are more than halfway there, but it is a bit like visiting an actor “in make- up” just before the first performance. There is a sense of anticipation directed elsewhere, as though you don’t have the city’s full attention.
A lot of places are being spruced up under wraps, so there is a lot of polythene billowing from scaffolding, including the flagship Lighthouse. Glasgow is wetter, windier and colder than most places in the south.Getting therePlanes fly into Glasgow International Airport from all over the UK, Europe and North America. Seeing Glasgow now is seeing it with its hairnet on.Local weatherInclement, particularly for southern softies. Also being celebrated is the work of Philippe Starck, Frank Lloyd Wright and “Greek” Thompson, and there will be 2,000 exhibitions, events, lectures, tours, films and workshops.When to goCities about to host events can be just as interesting as those actually hosting them. The Lighthouse, Mackintosh’s first major public building and the former Daily Herald office, is being restored as the flagship of the 1999 celebrations. But there is more to Glaswegian architecture than Victoriana.Glaswegians are particularly proud of their Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings.