Complex Numbers

Revisited: "Bloomington"

Today's the day I usually dig into the past to unearth an old entry at random. Today, we'll take another look at a short entry I did during an ill-fated 2021 summer road trip: "Bloomington" 

Anyway, I mean the one in Illinois, not the one in Indiana.

I wasn't even as clear as I could have been. The Bloomington in Indiana may be more well-known than others, but it's still probably not very famous. I almost went there for the 2024 solar eclipse, because I noticed that the path of totality passed right through the Indiana town. We ended up not far from there, though.

But, again, the entry I linked up there was about the next state over.

Hey, at least it's not Springfield. Then it could be any state. Sometimes I think it would be fun to visit every Springfield in the country...

It would be even more fun to try to find the shortest route that visits every Springfield. From what I understand, an algorithm to do something like that is a difficult computer problem.

Point is, it's extraordinarily rare that whatever they've named the place after is still there today.

Upon reflection, I shouldn't have said "extraordinarily rare." That was hyperbole at best, and misleading at worst. I do like looking into the origins of place names (as I did in that entry for Bloomington), much as I enjoy looking into etymology. But I shouldn't take wild guesses at the rarity of that sort of thing; I don't have enough data.

In any case, since it was a travel update, the entry was short and really only notable for the link that, if followed, will lead to a rare photo with me in it.