DBWI: What if a State of 'Idaho'?

Glen

Moderator
What if there were a state in the Northwest that was named, whimsically enough, Idaho? I came up with this idea when writing a satire of politics in the West. So here's the idea. First, what if some self-promoting Westernite came to Washington around the time of the founding of the Colorado Territory and suggested some made up name, Idaho (inspired by the name 'Ida', but he claims it is 'Indian' for 'Gem of the Mountain'). What if later on when they're carving up the rest of the Colorado territory, they give this name to a state between the Pacific Northwest and Montana.

I also decided to throw in another twist and have one of the latter territorial representatives for Montana to Congress come with an axe to grind due to a feud with the territorial governor of Idaho, and a bunch of gold for bribes, and gets the border moved from the continental divide to a point further west, maybe along the Bitterroot Mountains? This part is hilarious, but I wonder if I'm pushing it too far?

What do you think? Is this too ASB, or just too funny?
 

Keenir

Banned
What if there were a state in the Northwest that was named, whimsically enough, Idaho? I came up with this idea when writing a satire of politics in the West. So here's the idea. First, what if some self-promoting Westernite came to Washington around the time of the founding of the Colorado Territory and suggested some made up name, Idaho (inspired by the name 'Ida', but he claims it is 'Indian' for 'Gem of the Mountain'). What if later on when they're carving up the rest of the Colorado territory, they give this name to a state between the Pacific Northwest and Montana.

why would this Ida person want immortality with a word implying loose morality? I mean, what kind of counterculture haven would it be, surrounded by quality puritanical states - or is that part of OTL negated?
 

Glen

Moderator
why would this Ida person want immortality with a word implying loose morality? I mean, what kind of counterculture haven would it be, surrounded by quality puritanical states - or is that part of OTL negated?

In the story, at least, it wasn't a person named 'Ida', just someone who liked the name 'Ida' who created it.

And sorry to tell you, puritanism died long before the United States was born. In fact, one of my points in this satire is to point out the corruption of the so called 'rugged individuals' of the West.
 

Glen

Moderator
No other thoughts? Well, I guess this Idaho is just too ASB for normal comment....
 
No, not really ASB. But.... I dunno.... what's the point?

We all have problems getting our readers to suspend disbelief in our time lines - why bring in something like this to tax our readers' willingness even more? It's just too out there. You'll distract your audience with the improbability of this Idaho thing, and when they get to the next "truth is stranger" moment in the TL, they'll be more likely to rebel against your premise. Or worse, give up and stop reading.

Face it, even Thande's LTTE got a boatload of complaints over the Andrew Jackson/Boney sword fight. And that was with a TL that had otherwise seemed to master the whole Sometimes-History-IS-Strange motif. It's not that it's impossible, or even that implausible, it just stretches credulity unnecessarily, and distracts from the main thread of the TL.

I wouldn't bother. It's just too silly. Stick to the important bits.

I for one am starting to wonder about a certain Soviet politician who drowned early on in the '90s crisis. His name was Boris Yeltsin, and all the evidence of the time makes me wonder if he might actually have been able to break up the Union of Sovereign States into its constituent parts. I'd never get anywhere if I handwaved a random story like yours into the middle.
 
Why a made-up name? Name one other place on Earth where the official name is just an invented term. Summer camps do it. Retirement communities do it. American states? Places with constitutions and legislatures and supreme courts and other somber sorts of institutions? Can you imagine a law student poring over the Idaho Code of Statutes until 3 AM? :rolleyes:

If you want a whimsical name, I'm sure there are plenty of outlandish Shoshone placenames in the area that you could appropriate.
 

Glen

Moderator
No, not really ASB. But.... I dunno.... what's the point?

We all have problems getting our readers to suspend disbelief in our time lines - why bring in something like this to tax our readers' willingness even more? It's just too out there. You'll distract your audience with the improbability of this Idaho thing, and when they get to the next "truth is stranger" moment in the TL, they'll be more likely to rebel against your premise. Or worse, give up and stop reading.

Face it, even Thande's LTTE got a boatload of complaints over the Andrew Jackson/Boney sword fight. And that was with a TL that had otherwise seemed to master the whole Sometimes-History-IS-Strange motif. It's not that it's impossible, or even that implausible, it just stretches credulity unnecessarily, and distracts from the main thread of the TL.

I wouldn't bother. It's just too silly. Stick to the important bits.

I for one am starting to wonder about a certain Soviet politician who drowned early on in the '90s crisis. His name was Boris Yeltsin, and all the evidence of the time makes me wonder if he might actually have been able to break up the Union of Sovereign States into its constituent parts. I'd never get anywhere if I handwaved a random story like yours into the middle.

Your points, especially those illustrated by LTTE, are well taken. But it is exactly this kind of mindless meddling by individuals from the West who thought they could just do as they pleased that I wanted to magnify for satiric purposes. How the heck did you come up with a Russian named Boris...always makes me think of Boris the Bear!
 

Glen

Moderator
Why a made-up name? Name one other place on Earth where the official name is just an invented term. Summer camps do it. Retirement communities do it. American states? Places with constitutions and legislatures and supreme courts and other somber sorts of institutions? Can you imagine a law student poring over the Idaho Code of Statutes until 3 AM? :rolleyes:

If you want a whimsical name, I'm sure there are plenty of outlandish Shoshone placenames in the area that you could appropriate.

Well...you do have a point there....
 
What else could we do with that state's name? I was thinking of this guy in "Dune", Duncan Oregon... Or Gus Van Sant's movie "My Own Private Wyoming"... We could imagine, instead... No, doesn't sound that good.
 

Glen

Moderator
What else could we do with that state's name? I was thinking of this guy in "Dune", Duncan Oregon... Or Gus Van Sant's movie "My Own Private Wyoming"... We could imagine, instead... No, doesn't sound that good.

"By the ten-thousand teeming bastards of Duncan Oregon!" That can't be messed with...Duncan Idaho indeed! Though the movie title "My Own Private Idaho" would be quirky, and it sort of has a nice play on the self absorbed individualist point the satire makes....
 
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