Today is Sunday, October 28 and there are only 25 days until Thanksgiving. By now you should have started thawing your turkey and preparing to bake your pies. Today we remember the birthdays of Auguste Escoffier, Dr Jonas Salk and Charlie Daniels. On this day in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba, in 1793 Eli Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin and in 1965 the Gateway Arch (630’ high) was completed in St Louis, MO. In Czechoslovakia it is Foundation of the Republic Day, in Greece and Cyprus it is Ochi Day and in the US it is National Chocolate Day.

In the course of searching for this week’s fact I came across the fact that there is a town in Kentucky named Monkey’s Eyebrow. I wondered what other odd named towns there were and did more research. Here are some that I came up with.

Screamer, an unincorporated community in southeastern Alabama, has a noisy history. According to a local historian, the name may have two origins. In one version of the story, it comes from the fact that 19th century Native Americans used to loudly heckle white train travelers as they passed by what was then a reservation. This one made more sense so I skipped the other one.

Why call a town "Why?" This teeny-tiny community near the U.S.-Mexico border is named after the Y-shaped intersection of two nearby highways. But because of an Arizona law requiring that place names have at least three letters, "Y" became the much more existential "Why."

What started out as a temporary solution has become a point of pride for locals (currently fewer than 200 in number) in No Name, Colorado. According to reports, a government official first marked a newly constructed exit off I-70 with a sign reading “No Name” as a placeholder. By the time officials got around to officially labeling it, “No Name” had the support of the community and it stuck.

It feels like Christmas every day in Santa Claus, Indiana. But the origin of the name wasn’t quite so festive. As the story goes, the town was first named Santa Fe. In 1896, when the town wanted to secure a post office, postal officials told it to pick another name since Santa Fe was already taken. Someone thought Santa Claus was an acceptable alternative, and the post office agreed.

The wags in Gas, Kansas know what you're thinking. "You just passed Gas." "Gas Kan." "Get Gas!" The jokes write themselves. Gas got its name when, no surprise, natural gas was discovered in the area in 1898. Farmer E.K. Taylor promptly sold 60 acres of his land to industrial interests and subdivided the rest into lots, laying the groundwork for Gas (a.k.a. Gas City).

I wanted to include Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky in this list, but could not find too much information on the name. One person claimed that the name came from the fact that, if you stood on a hill and looked down, the shape of the town looked like a monkey’s eyebrow. I am not sure what that would look like, but there you have the only explanation I could find.

Yes, there is a Hell on Earth, and it’s 15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor, Michigan. There are several stories floating around about how this name came to be, but the one the town itself declares official is this: In the 1830s, the town settler, George Reeves, made a deal with local farmers to trade his homemade whiskey for the grain they grew. When the farmer’s wives knew their husbands were off dealing with Reeves, they were known to remark, “He’s gone to hell again.” The name stuck.

The town of Loveladies, New Jersey, was actually named after a man, not a group of women. Located on Long Beach Island, it got its start as one of the life-saving stations that appeared on the Jersey shore in the 1870s. The station borrowed its name from a nearby island owned by Thomas Lovelady, a local hunter and sportsman. When the community grew into a town it tested out several new titles, including Club House and Long Beach Park. In 1952, the early name of Loveladies became official.

Sandwiched between Zuni and Navajo reservations in western New Mexico, Candy Kitchen Ranch purportedly got its name when a local moonshine distiller needed a front to hide his illicit operations during Prohibition. To secure the sugar necessary to concoct barrels of hooch, the moonshiner established a confectionery that produced pinion nut candy on the side.

Around 1860, residents living in the fertile heart of central North Carolina had no name for their home. But when the United States Post Office planned to put down roots in the area, the townspeople convened to decide on a name. Debate ensued: Why not name it this? Why not name it that? The discussion dragged on until one frustrated local butted in and said, “Why not name the town Why Not and let’s go home?”

The Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, village of Intercourse knows what you’re thinking. “It’s okay, you can giggle!” the village’s website says. “We’re happy with our name. It’s the perfect conversation starter.” Just how did the town come by its unusual moniker, which it adopted in 1814? There are several possibilities. According to one theory, the name came from the fact that the town—which was originally called Cross Keys after a local tavern when it was founded in 1754—was at the intersection of two major roads. Another theory posits that the name is an evolution from “Entercourse” because, at the time, the town was located next to the entrance of a racetrack. The final theory revolves around the original meaning of the word intercourse: “connection or dealings between persons or groups; exchange especially of thoughts or feelings.”

This Horry County town, Ketchuptown, got its name from a country store built by Herbert Small in 1927, but not because of the condiments it sold. Every week, farmers would flock to Small’s store to “catch up” on news and gossip. As a town grew up around the store, the name stuck.

This week our fact tells us that in Massachusetts you must have a license to wear a goatee. Do you need one if you are visiting from another state? One has to wonder what they have against goatees as opposed to a full beard. Can you be issued a summons if you are driving through and get stopped? I will have to check that out before I go there.