A rose by any name….

“Even old New York was once New Amsterdam,

why they changed it, I can’t say,

People just liked it better that way.

Istambul was Constantinople,

Now it’s Istambul, not Constantinople,

Why did Constantinople get the works,

That’s nobody’s business but the Turks…”

Not too long ago, son David was in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City, going to a branch of Cambridge University…says it’s a very interesting place ’n he intends to return sometime ~ in the future ~ funny, but that’s what I said about the Grand Mesa in Colorado, 'n several other places that I passed thru at one time or another...

Anyhow, HCM City use’ta be Saigon, well, since the 17th century anyway, ’n many of the South Vietnamese, at least those living in the USA, vehemently prefer Saigon ~ but, as we are so often reminded, the winners get to write history pretty much anyway they want...

Burma, which wuz a big deal when I wuz a kid, what with the Brits getting their butt kicked ’n then all the war news about The Burma Hump…’n, yes, I wuzn’ t very old ’n didn’t really read all that much of the newspaper, but the Portsmouth Times wuz a real newspaper back then ’n adults read the war news, ’n talked about the war news, ’n there wuz usually a map denoting where we were ’n where the bad guys were ’n they was all strange names…’n Burma, along with Wake Island ’n Bataan ’n other hard to pronounce places were in all the adult conversations ’n yes indeed, little pitchers have big ears...

The Burma Hump wuz p’tick’larly puzzling to a little boy in Beattyville, Kentucky…fortunately, there were news reels ’n movies ’n such but it wudn’t until I saw what separated Burma from China that I understood why they called it ‘The Hump’….

Anyway, t’day’s Burma is offically named Republic of the Union of Myanmar (dunno why Commies seem to like such complicated names) but to most of the world, the old world, anyway, it’s still Burma as it has been called that since…oh, the 9th century…..

And Russia, oh good God, Russia has been Russia for…oh, hell, I don’t know how many years ’n I don’t want to look it up tho’ I suppose I could (9th century ’n named for a wildass group of nomads that called themselves, the Rus…well, makes sense then) 

For awhile, the Commies renamed it the United Soviet Socialist Republic (long, complicated name again) but now, it’s back to just plain old Russia…unless Vlad the Bad Putin c’n pull it together again ’n I ain’t got a clue what name he’ll come up with if he gets t’be King or Tsar or whatever....

And China, or if you prefer, The Peoples Republic of China, since 1949 anyway…Well, ever since Formosa became Taiway ’n almighty China became the PRC ’n seems like everyone just has to start changing names that have served humankind pretty darn well for thousands of years, well, the ubiquitous ‘They’ say that the only true constant is change….howsumever, if you go to a Chinese restaurant ‘most anywhere in the world ’n order Peking Duck, you pretty much get Peking Duck ’n not Beijing Duck….I don’t know if that holds true in Beijing/Peking or not but if anyone would like me to personally check it out, I will be happy to accept donations to defray the expense of the trip…

Caused me to wonder, if the Germans had won World War II, would they have changed the names of Paris ’n London ’n what might todays world call them…t’is a puzzlement….