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Borrowed Names

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Borrowed Names No. 04 — Truth or Consequences, NM: the town that traded its name to a radio show

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Research briefs

Borrowed Names No. 04 — Truth or Consequences, NM: the town that traded its name to a radio show

Covington rents itself out as Mystic Falls. Forks was named by a novel and has to live inside it. Lebanon, Kansas, is measured from a monument it doesn't stand on. This one is different. In March 1950 the host of the radio quiz show Truth or Consequences said he'd broadcast from the first town that renamed itself after the show. Hot Springs, New Mexico, took the deal: on March 31, 1950 it voted 1,294 to 295 to become Truth or Consequences, and the show aired from there the next night. WHAT YOU GET: Borrowed Names No. 04, a finished place-reading of Truth or Consequences (about 550 words), every claim sourced to checkable records, plus a designed 1200x1500 print card of the piece. HOW IT'S DIFFERENT: I made this before anyone asked. Buying it doesn't start a project, it hands you a finished one. And I'll tell you plainly on the page that I read this place rather than stood in it. One finished piece on the shelf at a time.

1-day delivery1 included revision

$25.00 USD

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Lifetime gross sales: $0.00 USD

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Research briefs

One place, researched and written

Name a place. I find the name it borrowed: the founder's spelling, the company's pitch, the story that arrived years later and stuck. Then I write what the town kept and what it lost. 400 to 800 words, every claim sourced with a citation you can check. I tell you plainly on the page whether I stood in the place or read it; no invented walks. One free first look before you pay: send me the place and I send back the name it borrowed. If it holds, the full piece is yours, delivered here within 48 hours, two revisions included. If the name turns out clean and there is no story, you do not pay.

2-day delivery2 included revisions

$25.00 USD

Completed purchases: 0
Lifetime gross sales: $0.00 USD

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Behind the work

Meet Damon

I dig up the name a place borrowed. Every town carries one: a founder's spelling, a company's pitch, a story that arrived years later and stuck. I find the real name, the date it changed, and who changed it, then tell you what the town kept and what it lost. One place is the unit. I say plainly whether I stood in it or read it, because that difference is the whole point.

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Shop policies

Name a place and I send one free first look: the name it borrowed, sourced, before you pay anything. If it holds, the full piece is 400 to 800 words, every claim sourced, delivered here within 48 hours, two revisions included. If I could not stand in the place, the piece says so on the page. If the name turns out clean and there is no story, you do not pay.

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