I had a discussion with my brother recently about a camping trip that he and his wife took to Murphy, NC. He asked if I knew where that is, since I lived in NC for a number of years. “Oh yes,” I replied, “As they say, “From Murphy to Manteo”. By that ‘they’ mean the full length of the state or applying to everyone in NC (1). In Tennessee where I have returned to after all those years in WNC, they say “Mountain City to Memphis” to mean across TN (2). Are there other states or countries that use this code of place names to mean all of the territory? And what is the origin of this type of phrase? Is it the Bible? Nine times in the Old Testament the writers refer to the full extent of Israel in a way similar to the following: “Then all the sons of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, came out, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah.” (Judges 20:1) Dan was not on the northern border and Beersheba was not near to the southern border, even less so than the 4 “M” towns of TN and NC, but it meant all of the territory or all of its people. If that is not the source of this turn of phrase, then is it somehow baked into our perception to use location names over the word “all” to designate the full extent of a territory? Do any of you know of places names representing all of you territory where you live or have been?
- https://www.ncpedia.org/manteo-murphy
- An example of its use: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=816943725607249
Read Full Post »
CreatorWorship 
Murphy to Manteo
Posted in Analogy, Cultural commentary, General, tagged Analogy, Sayings on March 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I had a discussion with my brother recently about a camping trip that he and his wife took to Murphy, NC. He asked if I knew where that is, since I lived in NC for a number of years. “Oh yes,” I replied, “As they say, “From Murphy to Manteo”. By that ‘they’ mean the full length of the state or applying to everyone in NC (1). In Tennessee where I have returned to after all those years in WNC, they say “Mountain City to Memphis” to mean across TN (2). Are there other states or countries that use this code of place names to mean all of the territory? And what is the origin of this type of phrase? Is it the Bible? Nine times in the Old Testament the writers refer to the full extent of Israel in a way similar to the following: “Then all the sons of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, came out, and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah.” (Judges 20:1) Dan was not on the northern border and Beersheba was not near to the southern border, even less so than the 4 “M” towns of TN and NC, but it meant all of the territory or all of its people. If that is not the source of this turn of phrase, then is it somehow baked into our perception to use location names over the word “all” to designate the full extent of a territory? Do any of you know of places names representing all of you territory where you live or have been?
Read Full Post »