Friday, April 27, 2012

X is for X-citing!



Ok, I'm cheating a little bit. Newfoundland does not have once community that begins with the letter X. Instead, here are some X-citing facts about Newfoundland....


Has a Moose population of over 150,000

Has 31 provincial parks and reserves

Was the first to respond to Titanic's distress signal-received at Cape Race

Has the oldest street in North America

Has the most pubs per square foot in Canada

Has 17,540 km (10,900 miles) of coastline

Has a population of 568,500, including 30,400 in Labrador

Was host to a meeting with President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill for the Atlantic Conference in 1941

Hosted Marconi's 1901 experiments when he received the first transatlanti wireless signal

Hosted more than 40 pioneering transatlantic flights between 1919 and 1937 (pilots such as Amelia Earhart, Charles and Anne Lingbergh, Wiley Post, and Harold Gatty)

Has 176 rivers where Atlantic Salmon may be caught by rod and reel

Was the landing point for the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable, at Heart's Content in 1866

Is home to more than 20 species of whales and dolphins

Is pronounced by Newfoundlander's as NoufinLANd (kind of, depending on how fast you are talking, what part of the bay you are from and how many beers you have had to drink)

28 comments:

  1. Most pubs - who knew? And that is a lot of moose.

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    1. every time I drive in the dark, I am watchful they don't wander on the road

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  2. I had a feeling that there would be no X places Bay Girl but I love what you've done instead anyway, it's been great to learn more about Newfoundland because just like Karen I knew nothing about it before reading this.

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    1. each of those red dots was featured this month :)

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  3. NewFOUNDland is a very special place indeed.

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  4. LOVING these facts!!!!! Like most people, I used to pronounce it "NEWfinlind". But after watching Rick Mercer, Mary Walsh, etc. on the CBC comedies, I now pronounce it correctly! I had to look up the Marconi fact on Wiki though, b/c where I grew up on Cape Cod, there is a Marconi Radio Site in Wellfleet. I thought that's where the first transatlantic signal was sent from, but you beat us by 2 years. The Wellfleet station was built in 1901, but the signal sent in 1903.

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  5. It always depends on the number of beers. For example, if one has quite a lot of beers, Alberta can end in an emphatic vomit noise...

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  6. It really cracks me up here when I hear people say New Found Land, with each syllable so crisp and distinctive!

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  7. Did you know that X is the only letter of the alphabet that doesn't boast a Canadian town?

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    1. if I ever start my own town, I will make it begin with X

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  8. That was really interesting. I owuld never have guessed your pronunciation. Here we say NEW-fun-lund. "...and how many beers..." lol... Nice post!

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  9. nice post!!

    I found X the hardest of all letters so far, and i had to cheat a little today too!! LOL

    :)

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  10. I will have to remember that pronunciation.

    Great facts about Newfoundland!


    The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

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  11. That's a lot of moose. Any flying squirrels?

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    1. No flying squirrels, but I do know a Natasha

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  12. Very interesting! Popping in from A-Z;)

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