Columbia

[privatepop]

I’ve recently been enjoying the War years New Year Eve programs (some of the best shows) and was wondering who is Columbia specifically. I found this on the internet;

But why Columbia, you ask? Columbia was one of the old poetic names for our nation, kind of like we use "America" or "the States" or "Uncle Sam" today. It references Christopher Columbus and a woman's form vaguely akin to the French Marianne. It fell out of popularity about 100 years ago, but we used to have pro-American songs like "Hail Columbia" (which, incidentally, is still the Vice President's anthem as opposed to "Hail to the Chief"). CBS used to be called "Columbia Broadcasting System".

[epeterd]

As a matter of fact, in the early 1800s there was a drive to give the United States an official name. Apparently USA was not considered the official name at the time. Anyway, Columbia was one of the names that was suggested. Can't remember the others, it's been about 8 or 9 months since I read that.

peter

[privatepop]

So when they say, District of Columbia, it’s the same as saying District of the United States.

[epeterd]

And the gang did their shopping at Eastern United States Broadway and Ninth

peter

[shimp scrampi]

And don't forget that lady with the torch at the start of all those movies...