Finally, a product to bring much-deserved recognition to an
out-of-the-way place: Intel has announced their "enthusiast"
motherboard for high-performance computing: the
href="http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/d975xbx/index.htm">D975XBX,
nicknamed the
"Bad Axe."
Just get a load a'the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink">heat
sinks on that baby! Granted, it's not the
most pragmatic piece of hardware on the planet, but it'll make your
lan-party buddies green with envy.
The product's namesake is a little town in Michigan's thumb.
Hardly anybodies been there, but that's only because it is
not on the way to anywhere. Except Grindstone City.
Even so, Bad
Axe, Michigan, is not just a little town.
It is the
county seat! Population: 3,462.
Violent crimes in 2003: four. According to e-Podunk
(really!) their song is "
href="http://www.michiganhistoryvideos.com/html/town_histories.html">I
Found My Baby in Bad Axe," by The
Deltrons. It was sung by Arthur Godfrey, which I guess gives
it a certain cachet. Of sorts.
It's said that the town got it's name from a notation made by a
surveyor. Apparently, the only thing notable in the area was
a beat-up old bad axe on the ground. So that got written in
the log book, and the name stuck.
Some of my ancestors came from Bad Axe, by the way. I bet
they'd be proud to have the D975XBX named after their town.