words wholly unrelated

mystic & mystic, (connecticut)

i’ve been at submarine school for the last week in mystic, connecticut. while i can’t disclose the confidential information that i’ve been learning, i did happen upon a rather unexpected bit of disinformation: the town of mystic has nothing to do with mysticism.

as towns go, the per capita mysteriousness of mystic lies somewhere between its rival new england seaport towns: newport, rhode island (not mysterious) and amity, massachusetts (somewhat mysterious). so why the misleading name? was it to attract tourists? was it to help launch a pizza empire and subsequently invite julia roberts to its town hall? was it to discourage soviet submarine spies? was it (like providence, rhode island) to lure the faithful?

the answer is none of the above. in this case, mystic comes from the pequot word “missi-tuk”, meaning “a large river whose waters are driven into waves by tides or wind.” early settlers stole it from the native americans? sounds a lot like the rest of american history.