Some things I found interesting this morning.
Via Technorati I found a link to my site from eugene.com‘s blog of the day archive; apparently my site was their blog of the day on November 16 last year. Neat!
And from ORblogs I found a new blog from Portland: the Kenilworth-Abernathy neighborhood blog. Not only does it center on that cool patch of southeast Portland that we like to visit (my brother, when he lived in Portland, always lived southeast, and my bestest friend lives there), but it has “Abernathy” in the name. I never knew one of the neighborhoods in Portland was named “Abernathy.” Worth further investigating.
Interestingly, I only just learned that what is often called Hosford-Abernathy is actually Hosford-Abernethy with an "e" and not an "a" — but almost everyone here spells it wrong.
I’m glad you’re reading the blog, and I was wondering how long I could go without a comment about Aberna(e)thy. I’ve seen it spelled both ways countless times – the Southeast Uplift neighborhood association, the "authority" I used, spells it with an "a" (http://gis.co.multnomah.or.us/pmpb/data.cfm?NBHDNUM=81). However it seems that the namesake of the neighborhood is George Abernethy, former governor of Oregon Territory: his family history is here http://www.open.org/~glennab/abernathyhistory.htm. That’s right, the family name is spelled with an "a", more frequently. I’d like to figure this out…shoot me an email if anyone has any resources, I’ll blog about it.
If you notice the HAND sign at the eastern edge of the Hawthorne Bridge, the correct spelling is Abernethy. The neighborhood coalition has it wrong.
Plus, this Google search reveals that the website of Southeast Uplift in fact uses Hosford-Abernethy.
Ah crap, HTML is stripped out here. I won’t paste the Google search URL in, but here is the SEUL one:
http://www.southeastuplift.org/hosfordassoc.htm
Yeah, sorry about that HTML stripping thing (again). I really need to post a warning or something…
I’m not sure how interchangeable Abernathy and Abernethy are, but I’ve found it generates more confusion than not. Here in Bend, one of the city councilors is named Bruce Abernethy, and I’ve been asked more times than I can count if I’m related to him.
(I’m not.)