WIT STOP

You May Know Who's on First, but Do You Know Why Why Is Why?

A popular tune years ago sang of “faraway places with strange sounding names.” However, you don't have to go far to learn of places with strange sounding names. You don't even have to leave the state.

There's a place called Gu Achi in southern Arizona about 15 miles northeast of Gu Vo. Of course, those are Indian names on the Papago reservation.

But there also are several towns and cities with intriguing English language names. Tombstone and Skull Valley sound a bit ominous, don't you think? You wonder how the town of Sells got the name Sells. Maybe it once was a village of trading posts that have since been converted to gift shops. Who knows? What prompted the founding fathers to call their town Tuba City? Their local marching band couldn't be made up entirely of... no, that would be ridiculous. They'd have to have at least one glockenspiel.

I'm sure all the people who live in or near these places are proud of their names, and there are good, logical reasons why they're called what they're called. It's just that seeing some of these names listed in the index of a book, without knowing anything of the history, can be intriguing.

I was reading through a list of Arizona cities, towns, and villages the other day, and it led to an interesting conversation. I said to my wife, “Did you know there was a place in Arizona called Why?”

My wife said, “What?”

I said, “Why.” She said, “Because I want to know what you just said.”

I said, “I just said, 'Why.'”

She said, “I know you just said 'Why,' right after I said, 'What?' But I want to know

what you said right before you said, 'Why.'”

Sometimes when my wife and I sit alone in our den and there's nothing too interesting on television, we like to pretend we're Abbott and Costello.) I said, “I said, 'Did you know there was a place called Why, Arizona?'”

She said, “Really? Why.”

I said, “I have no idea why.” She said, “No, I wasn't asking why. I was just repeating the name of the town.” “Oh,” I said.

She said, “That's a strange name for a town. I wonder why anyone would call their home Why?” Now I knew she was askinging why, so I repeated my previous answer, “I have no idea why.” She asked, “Is there a Who, What, Where, or When, Arizona?” I didn't notice any on the list I had been reading from, so I said, “Probably not. What difference would that make anyway?” My wife said, “Well, maybe they called the town Why because Who, What, Where, and When were already taken.” “That's a possibility,” I admitted. It was a rather remote possibility, but I didn't bother mentioning that to my spouse.

She asked, “Is there a Why Not, Arizona?” I said, “It's not on this list, but what makes you think there would be one?”

She said, “Why not?”

“You have a point,” I said. Again, it was a rather tenuous one, but there was no reason to debate it.

“There must be a Just Because, Arizona, on that list,” she said.

I checked. There wasn't. I told her so.

She said, “It's probably a

suburb of Why and isn't listed on there.”

“What makes you so positive there's a Just Because in Arizona?” She said, “Because the two go hand in hand. Anytime you ask someone 'Why?' they'll usually say, 'Just because.'” This entire conversation was beginning to give me a dull headache, so I said, “Well, anyway, I thought it was interesting that there was a town called Why in Arizona.” My wife said, “And so you're just going to leave it at that?” I said... “Yeah.” The pause was because I was wondering what exactly she wanted me to do about it.

She told me. “You can't just raise a question like that and then leave it unanswered.”

I said, “What question?”

She said, “Why?” I said, “That's not a question. It's the name of a town in Arizona.” She said, “But why was it named Why? That's the question, and I won't rest until I know the answer, and since you brought it up in the first place, I think you should resolve it.” So I did some research. It was easier than trying to argue my way out of it. I checked the encyclopedia, some travel books, made a few phone calls to friends, and I discovered why Why was Why.

I told my wife, “You should find this fascinating. The town of Why was formerly referred to as 'The Y' as in the letter Y because it was at the junction of Arizona highways 85 and 86, just north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. How about that?” She said, “So it has nothing to do with the question, “Why?” “Absolutely nothing,” I said.

She said, “Then why on earth did you bring it up?” “Just because,” I said.