Novi, pronounced to rhyme with Popeye, lies a few miles south of us and is famous for a vast mall - Twelve Oaks - that we are particularly fond of*. This mall is surrounded by a sprawling, treeless car park and a nameless ring-road which is an endless source of amusement for our kids because it prompts our sat-nav to inform us that we are "driving on road".
In my Old-World naïveté, I had always assumed that Novi got its name because it was the newest in the area, or something of that ilk. The truth is far more interesting.
Novi allegedly used to be the sixth stop on the Detroit-Chicago railway line, in other words, station number six: "No. VI". Over time, just like Charing Cross in London ("Croix de la Chère Reine"), the name became bowdlerised to its present form, presumably by people who didn't understand Roman numerals.
But the fun doesn't end there.
Although it only has a population of 57,000, Novi is officially a city, though confusingly enough it is part of Novi Township. The city of Novi was incorporated in 1969 following a vote by the inhabitants of the village of Novi (incorporated 1958).
I think I shall vote to reclassify our house a cathedral.
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* Its fame comes from being big and popular, not the fact that we are fond of it.
2 comments:
Completely irrelevant, but your story reminded me of the Swahili word for a traffic roundabout: "kipi lefti". Does you sat nav have a Swahili setting??
No Swahili, but a choice of male and female American, British and Australian English voices. Though the latter one is not much use because it simply tells you to "go on walkabout" no matter what your destination, then says, "You're f***ed, mate!" when you miss a turn.
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