Just another blog about America's favorite Petropolis, Midland-Odessa Texas.
WTI Cushing Spot $131.04 What's in a name? Midland
Posted 07-21-2008 at 09:27 PM by Lucidus
Last entry I talked about the name of Odessa, this time I will cover the other half of the petroplex, Midland.
Now Midland at least has its own name and is not named after another city. I consider that a big plus. But, the name is still a little lacking but Midland did show some initiative, just not enough.
Midland got its name its name because it is the halfway point between El Paso and Dallas. In a way this may actually be worse than just naming your city after another city. I mean basically Midland is named for being the location at which travelers from Dallas to El Paso, and vice versa, reached the point where it would be just as long to turn as to keep going. I can just envision those people going from Dallas to El Paso thinking " OMG, what have we gotten into. Things just keep looking worse and worse. Maybe we should turn back. Naw, screw it, we're halfway lets just keep going and maybe things will improve." Basically if you find yourself in a city named Midland, then you are in the middle of nowhere and you have a big decision to make.
The other problem with the name is that it is not as original as Midlanders thought it would be. Originally, the city was going to be called Midway, but the locals thought that there were too many places already called Midway, so they tried to be unique by naming it Midland instead. It was a nice show of effort but there are a dozen places in America also called Midland for the exact same reason. So the name change ended up being pretty pointless.
So give Midland points for trying, then subtract the points for failing. In the next entry I will get to the point of this line of thought.
Now Midland at least has its own name and is not named after another city. I consider that a big plus. But, the name is still a little lacking but Midland did show some initiative, just not enough.
Midland got its name its name because it is the halfway point between El Paso and Dallas. In a way this may actually be worse than just naming your city after another city. I mean basically Midland is named for being the location at which travelers from Dallas to El Paso, and vice versa, reached the point where it would be just as long to turn as to keep going. I can just envision those people going from Dallas to El Paso thinking " OMG, what have we gotten into. Things just keep looking worse and worse. Maybe we should turn back. Naw, screw it, we're halfway lets just keep going and maybe things will improve." Basically if you find yourself in a city named Midland, then you are in the middle of nowhere and you have a big decision to make.
The other problem with the name is that it is not as original as Midlanders thought it would be. Originally, the city was going to be called Midway, but the locals thought that there were too many places already called Midway, so they tried to be unique by naming it Midland instead. It was a nice show of effort but there are a dozen places in America also called Midland for the exact same reason. So the name change ended up being pretty pointless.
So give Midland points for trying, then subtract the points for failing. In the next entry I will get to the point of this line of thought.
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