Columbia, Gem of the Ocean

You know how you can get songs stuck in your brain that just won’t let go? How about this – do you ever get a word or a phrase stuck the same way? I sure do.

There have been times when it happens so frequently I thought about adding a list of them to my sidebar (not that any of you would care).

Well lately, the word that’s been stuck has been the name Columbia. I’m not sure what put it there – could be anything, from Columbia Sportswear to the Columbia River; Columbia, South Carolina to Columbia Pictures – but I wonder if I need to run with it somehow. My sketching hand is inclined to doodle the name in several forms, which could result in more polished work in the future.

By the way, in case you didn’t know it, Columbia, derived from the name Columbus, almost became the name of our country during its early days, but the powers that were decided to keep it the oh-so-poetic United States of America. President Washington named “the Territory of Columbia,” now the District, in 1791. They named the mighty Columbia River the following year; the capital city of South Carolina became Columbia in 1786. “Columbian” used to be the demonym for a citizen of this country all the way until 1863, when The Republic of Colombia was established. So now you know. And knowing is half the battle. (The other half is knowing what a “demonym” is.)