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“The Land of Many Lakes”

I came across a Spokane tourism brochure from the 1930s.

On the cover it proclaims this area to be “The Land of Many Lakes.”

Not especially memorable, is it?

As a lesson in writing, it points out the virtue of being specific.

“How many lakes do you have out there?”

“Many.”

I don’t know when Minnesota started calling itself the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” (a lowball count, experts say). But that’s a slogan you remember.

Of course, it could be that the person writing copy for that brochure simply didn’t know how many lakes there are around here. I wonder what words he or she toyed with before settling on “many.”

“Land of Plenty Lakes.”

“Land of Numerous Lakes.”

“Land of Multitudinous Lakes.”

“Land of a Whole Mess of Lakes.”

“Land of a Big Load of Lakes.”

“Land of a Slew of Lakes.”

“Land of a Boatload of Lakes.”

“Land of Abundant Lakes.”

www.e-humanity.org

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "The Slice." Read all stories from this blog