's-Hertogenbosch

There is a place in the Netherlands called ’s-Hertogenbosch. Yes, that’s not a typo. Its official legal place name begins with an apostrophe. The locals all call it Den Bosch (and never, ever mention that you won’t find Den Bosch on a map ‘cos why would anybody possibly need to know that?)

And, seeing it on a railway departure board earlier this morning, it occurs to me that if there’s anywhere in the world that figured out a lot of database stuff right from day 1, it’s probably the good people of ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

(obviously and shamelessly stolen from https://xkcd.com/327/ so if you like it go and buy one of Randall’s books or something. The anniversary edition of What If? is particularly good.)