"Pseudo-country" city of the week: Columbia, the capital and largest city of South Carolina, was not named for the South American country Colombia. "Columbia" has been a literary term for the United States since colonial times. Both "Columbia" and "Colombia" are both derived from Signor Columbus, of course. (Thanks to Devid Chetcuti of Concord, Calif.)

Our recent redundancy riffs inspired Bert Hall of Orinda, Calif., to ask about one of our le ...

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