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10/17/10 - A Reader Has Some Questions For Evangelical Leaders And High-Church Grand Pooh-Bahs, Etc.

From: Ronald Kyser (email him)

Re: James Fulford 's blog item: Blonde Indian Girl Wins New Zealand Beauty Contest–Brunette Indian Girls Miffed

James Fulford wrote, "New Zealand was named after an island in Denmark, possibly because of the fjords."

This is off on two points.  New Zealand was named for Zeeland in the Netherlands.  Englishmen later changed the spelling, perhaps to make it look less foreign. 

And there are no fjords in Zealand or anywhere else in Denmark, at least in the English and Norwegian senses of the term.  (Don't look for one in Zeeland, either!)

Actually, Danes call any old inlet a "fjord".  After spending a summer on Zealand, I left by three consecutive ferries—Hundested to Rørvig (both on Zealand) to Grenå (in Jutland) to Varberg, Sweden.  The first of those crossed the mouth of Isefjord— which to us is about as much a "fjord" as is Tampa Bay.

If you want a real, and closer, fjord, the Hudson River south of Albany qualifies.  At least to geologists.

For more letters from Roland Kyser, an old friend of VDARE.COM, see here.