[meteorite-list] Name of Texas Fall: Ash Creek

[Linton Rohr]

Jerry, 
It's good to hear from a resident of west Texas.
I appreciate your point of view. And your place of residence. 
Having grown accustomed to the unofficial name,
I believe I can adjust with no serious side effects.
My specimen cards (and those of most others) have a line for...
Specimen name: (Ash Creek) and...
Location of find/fall: (West, Texas).
I believe that does it. ;^)
Linton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jerry A. Wallace" <jwal2000 at swbell.net>
To: "MeteoriteCentral" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Name of Texas Fall: Ash Creek



> Hi Dr. Jeff and List,

> 

> I, for one, am tickled that the "WEST", Texas fall has been officially 

> named anything but "WEST".

> 

> Years ago I became aware of the methods and criteria used by the 

> Nomenclature Committee for

> naming any new fall or find. So it was obvious that the name WEST was 

> premature.

> 

> The first email I received about someone actually finding a piece of the 

> fall (may have been Sonny- I

> don't remember) stated that it was found near WEST TEXAS. Well now, by 

> gum, that name takes

> in a huge geographical area. Having lived in Odessa for many years, I 

> have always heard our area

> termed WEST TEXAS. And it is...WEST TEXAS. I have always, arbitrarily, 

> thought of the western

> part of Texas as starting around Abilene or thereabouts. A lot of folks 

> for many years have declared

> that Ft. Worth is "Where the west begins". Who am I to argue. West Texas 

> officially ends just west

> of El Paso. It has to in that New Mexico starts there. So using Ft. 

> Worth as a starting point (going

> west) and ending the trip in El Paso, we have now covered about 603 

> miles and are still a skosh

> away from the New Mexico border. If we start the trip from Abilene we'll 

> be covering over 455

> miles. I believe Darren might declare that distance to be at least an 

> OODLE of miles, may even stretch

> into the next unit of measurement. I won't even go into what constitutes 

> the southern and northern

> boundaries of what is considered "WEST TEXAS", but there are some 

> impressive distances there too.

> 

> Most everyone who lives in the great state of Texas think of the western 

> part of Texas when they hear

> the term WEST TEXAS. And that's a big place.

> 

> So now you can possibly understand that every time I heard the name WEST 

> TEXAS (and frequently

> written without the distinction and clarification of even a comma 

> between the words) applied to the fall

> I was immediately disconcerted, discombobulated, confused, and 

> bewildered. Contrary to popular

> opinion that is really not my normal state of mind.

> 

> HAIL to the new meteorite ASH CREEK. Welcome aboard into the 

> multitudinous family of existing Texas

> meteorites, the ones that had the good sense to aim for our great state. 

> They knew they would be properly

> appreciated and cared for here. Watch for my new book "The Care and 

> Feeding of Texas Meteorites",

> scheduled to be on the bookstore bookshelves any time now.

> 

> It would be greatly appreciated if any of you foreigners (anyone who 

> doesn't live in Texas) who are in

> possession of any of our fine Texas meteorites please send them home. 

> Just write for the correct address

> to mail them to. Or sending them home to Dr. Art Ehlmann at the Monnig 

> Museum would be a good starting

> point. We can work out the distribution details later.

> 

> Best regards from west Texas, not West, Texas,

> 

> Jerry

> 

> 

> 

> Jeff Grossman wrote:

>> I just wanted everybody on the list to know that the Nomenclature 

>> Committee has approved the name of the recent fall near West, Texas.  

>> It will have the official name "Ash Creek".  See this and 38 other 

>> recent approvals at:

>> http://tin.er.usgs.gov/meteor/ (use the What's New pulldown menu).

>>

>> jeff

>>

>>

>> Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman       phone: (703) 648-6184

>> US Geological Survey          fax:   (703) 648-6383

>> 954 National Center

>> Reston, VA 20192, USA

>>

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