My neighbor travels fairly often, but they’re usually short business trips. A few days ago, he told me he was going to be gone maybe a few weeks. I asked him if he needed anything before he left or if there was something I needed to do for him while he was gone\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He seemed surprised and said, \u201cit\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to Timbuktu.\u201d I hadn\u2019t heard that in a long time. It\u2019s a phrase that that\u2019s usually used when referring to somewhere very far away or sometimes maybe to mean a journey you really don\u2019t want to take. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as \u201cthe most distant place imaginable.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people even think it\u2019s not a real place, but imaginary.\u00a0
But it is a real place and I\u2019ve been there \u2014 Timbuktu is in Mali, West Africa.
I don\u2019t think it holds the mystique it once did \u2014 even the last time I was there it seemed a bit \u201crun-down.\u201d
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My neighbor travels fairly often, but they’re usually short business trips. A few days ago, he told me he was going to be gone maybe a few weeks. I asked him if he needed anything before he left or if … Continue reading