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View Full Version : My history article or some shameless self-promotion.

Herodotus
15-January-2005, 06:14 AM
I write a local history column for the Modesto Bee and this is my latest one.
It has a little blurb on me at the bottom. I hope those of you from Central California find it interesting and those from everwhere else are welcome too. All comments (such as "it stinks!, your degree should be revoked, is English your second language?") are welcome.

http://www.modbee.com/opinion/community/story/9767241p-10631599c.html
sarongsong
15-January-2005, 06:54 AM
Bless you for finally unraveling how/why Los Banos got its name! As a one-time regular commuter from the Bay Area to Yosemite, descending the Pacheco Pass into 'The Bathrooms' never made any sense til now.
And the translation of Modesto?
Herodotus
15-January-2005, 04:36 PM
Bless you for finally unraveling how/why Los Banos got its name! As a one-time regular commuter from the Bay Area to Yosemite, descending the Pacheco Pass into 'The Bathrooms' never made any sense til now.
And the translation of Modesto?

You are welcome. Modesto is supposed to mean modesty, there is another story about how we got that name. The banker William Ralston was said to have been offered the honor of having the new town named after him, but turned it down. A Mexican nearby heard Ralston turn down the honor and replied in Spanish "what modesty" and that is another version of how we became Modesto.
Disinfo Agent
15-January-2005, 04:53 PM
Modesto is supposed to mean modesty [...]
"Modest", more precisely. :wink:
Herodotus
15-January-2005, 05:49 PM
Modesto is supposed to mean modesty [...]
"Modest", more precisely. :wink:

Thanks, I stand corrected. :oops: :D
Gillianren
18-January-2005, 12:25 AM
I'd wondered about Los Banos, too. I actually wrote it into one of my novels, just because the name amused me.

it's a good article. in fact, I may need to forward it to my old CA history teacher down in Altadena. (which means nothing. sure, "alta" is high, or upper, but "dena" is a chunk of the chunk of a word that Pasadena used as their name.)
Herodotus
18-January-2005, 03:40 AM
I'd wondered about Los Banos, too. I actually wrote it into one of my novels, just because the name amused me.

it's a good article. in fact, I may need to forward it to my old CA history teacher down in Altadena. (which means nothing. sure, "alta" is high, or upper, but "dena" is a chunk of the chunk of a word that Pasadena used as their name.)

Thanks, after that I feel like. . . \:D/
Disinfo Agent
18-January-2005, 11:32 AM
The exact spelling in Spanish is "Los Baņos", and it means "the baths", not "the bathrooms"! :lol: