M*A*S*H-ing along

One of the top two or three favorite TV shows ever is M*A*S*H. I consider Alan Alda, in his incarnation as Hawkeye Pierce, to be one of my top two pun influences along with Groucho Marx.

Anyway, here's the official list of the hometowns of top M*A*S*H caracters:

Pierce/No Crabapple Cove, Maine, exists
Trapper/Boston, supposedly, though I never heard that; Leo Lincourt says it likely comes from the movie
Margaret/Fort Ord (beside Monterey, Calif.) (also from the movie, not the TV show?)
Blake/Bloomington, Ill.
Potter/Hannibal, Mo.
Radar/Ottumwa, Iowa
BJ/Mill Valley, Calif. (Marin County, Bay Area)
Klinger/Toledo, Ohio
Mulcahy/Philadelphia
Winchester/Boston
Frank Burns/Fort Wayne, Ind.

Before earlier this month, I'd been through, and stopped in, Hannibal, for a college baseball game, and saw Mark Twain stuff. I've been through and stopped in Monterey, though not Fort Ord. Been through Bloomington and Toledo, and spent time in Philly at all the historic sites. Been th rough Fort Wayne, and driven by the Lutheran seminary.

I also visited, 3 years ago, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, northwest of LA, where episodes were filmed.

Well, finally, in my most recent Bay Area trip, I visited Mill Valley.