How about a better name for Biggar?

Yes, folks, there really is a place called Biggar in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Motto (in case the pic is too small): New York is big, but this is Biggar!

How (I hear you asking) did Biggar get its name? According to Agent 3, who lived in that neck of the woods for a while, there are two theories. The first is that it was named after a director the Canadian Pacific Railway. The top hat gang were travelling through western Canada on newly laid track and decreed that there should be a town every 15 miles or so. Having given no thought to names, they adopted the expedient of naming the proposed settlements after themselves.

The other theory is that the same directors stopped the train 15 miles after the last one, looked around, saw nothing, and said "B*gg*r this!" The company secretary supplied the missing vowels in the meeting minutes.

Whatever the truth of the matter may be, it must be said that "Biggar" is not much of a name. Walt thinks the town should be renamed, if not after a saint [they're all already taken by Québec. Ed.], then by a name out of history, or the name of someplace in "the old country".

But which old country? Walt is in the middle of Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914, the weighty but interesting new work by Max Hastings (Collins 2013). In the chapter on the campaigns in Galicia -- the part of modern-day Poland and Ukraine around the Carpathian mountains -- there are some great place names. And there are loads of Ukrainian-Canadians in Saskatchewan. [And "Walt" is a common name amongst Ukrainians and people of that ilk, right? Ed.]

Yes... for all these reasons I am suggesting "Biggar" be changed to... wait for it... Przemysl! Or Перемишль -- aintcha impressed?!To make it easier to spell, we'll omit the accent mark from the Romanized version. [Wouldn't hurt to add a vowel or two as well. Ed.] To the citizens of Biggar... you're welcome!