Hiya Skeleton Crew,

Normally in these here introductions I like to tell youse guys how things are goin at the Skeleplex. But since I’m still travelin through the UK right now … I don’t actually know!! But don’tcha worry, I’ve got Gene mindin the proverbial store, plus I asked some of my pals to check in on things every now & then. I’m sure it’s all fine!

Anyways, at some point I’ll fill ya in ’bout my reasons for bein overseas. But seein as I’m a li’l pressed for time right now, let’s just get on with the trivias, eh?

Trivia 1

The town of Bath is on the River Avon – or really I guess I should say a River Avon, ’cause there are a whole BUNCHA Avons in the UK! The one in Bath isn’t even the most famous Avon; nah, that’d hafta be the Warwickshire Avon, a.k.a. Shakespeare’s Avon, a.k.a. the Avon that Stratford-upon-Avon’s up on.

Why so many Avons, ya might be wonderin? Well, it’s ’cause Avon’s just the Anglicized version of the Welsh word afon, which means “river”. So when ya say River Avon, yer basically just sayin “River River” – i.e., it’s one of those tautological place names.

Can ya tell me what river of Asia is actually TRIPLY tautological, since its name combines the words for “river” from both Thai (a language from the Kra–Dai family) plus an archaic term from the Austroasiatic languages (which includes Vietnamese)?

Trivia 2

There’s a cool li’l feature on the River Avon in Bath, right near the Pulteney Bridge, that I somehow managed to forget to take a picture of. Fortunately, I was able to find a good photo on Flickr that I’m allowed to use to show ya what I’m talkin ’bout:

That pretty V-shaped cascade is caused by what type of structure (also sometimes called a “low-head dam”) that helps control the flow of the river? The one in the picture was built in the 1970s as a kinda engineered “Project Hail Mary” to help protect the town of Bath from bein flooded by the Avon.