Iced in

Since it is 21 degrees and the streets are covered in ice, I can't get out to go the Craig Class - ironically the program today is a review of "Hot, Flat and Crowded", I would like everyone to be entitled to my opinion of Big Rich, a new book by Bryan Burrough about the big Texas oil fortunes.

I stayed up late last night reading about Hugh Roy Cullen, Sid Richardson, Clint Murchison and can't wait to read the parts about H. L. Hunt. However, I'm appalled that the author or his editor has misspelled the name of the Texas towns Burkburnett (he writes Buckburnett) and Waxahachie (he writes Waxahatchie).

Burkburnett is actually named for a man named Burk Burnett.
Here's the Wikipedia entry:

Originally settled by ranchers as early as 1856, this community was known by some locals as Nesterville. By 1880 the town had a small store with a population of 132. From 1882 until 1903, a post office operated there under the designation Gilbert, named after the north Texas pioneer Mabel Gilbert. In 1906, a nearby wealthy rancher named Samuel Burk Burnett sold over 16,000 acres (65 km²) of his land in northern Wichita County to a group of investors who were seeking to extend the Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway north through Oklahoma and Kansas.[4] Within Burnett’s former land near the railroad, lots were auctioned off the following year and a post office was established. The town was named Burkburnett by President Theodore Roosevelt, who visited the area for a wolf hunt that was hosted by the wealthy rancher Burnett.[5] In 1912, oil was discovered west of the town attracting thousands to the area and by 1918, an approximate twenty-thousand people had settled around the oilfield. The Great Depression would have a negative impact on the town’s population, which would be boosted again in 1941 as Sheppard Air Force Base would be established nearby.

There are about 10,000 people living there now.

Couldn't Penguin Press have consulted a Texas native or a Texas map?

That reminds me of the old joke:

Yankee travelers were driving through Texas and came to a town named Mexia. They got into an argument about how to pronounce it, and the argument got a little heated. They stopped at a fast food place in the town, surged in and demanded of the girl behind the counter.

"How do you pronounce the name of this place?"

She looked dumbfounded, but pronounced very carefully "Dairrrrry Queeeeen."