>>Natives of Portland, OR like to say Portland is named after Portlandia - something that never existed though. However, "Portland got its name when Asa Lovejoy and Francis Pettygrove flipped a coin in 1845. Lovejoy was from Massachusetts and he wanted to name the new settlement Boston. Pettygrove was from Maine and wanted to name the new town Portland. Pettygrove won the coin toss two out of three times and the rest as they say is history. "
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>See what I mean!
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>Message #1371607

Nobody ever met those who do say that the rest is history. Those are already extinct or have never existed at all. Any English speaker living today has met only other people like himself, who never heard anyone say it for real. He firmly believes that people who do say that the rest is history are imaginary beings of the folk tales, somewhere among gremlins, drekavacs, vampires, baba Rogas and orcs. Mentioning them as if they once existed is just customary, there's no substance to it.

As they say, it's deja vu all over again: there's always more history than logic in a language.

Or should we start learning Lojban as a matter of last resort?