“Worms” seems like an odd, if not insensitive, name for this cemetery on the northern edge of McIntosh County in south-central North Dakota. That was my first reaction when I came upon it. It even conjured memories of Lloyd and Harry’s ill-fated entrepreneurial opportunity in Dumb and Dumber!

This is a tiny little strip of land in a field just north of Highway 3. I imagine it was named after one of the oldest cities in Europe: Worms, Germany. This was the location of the Edict of Worms, where Martin Luther was branded a heretic. And it was the even more awkwardly titled Diet of Worms who made this decision. A “diet” in that sense was a deliberative body, not a food plan as we think of it today. That would pretty gross.

Language over time is interesting, don’t you think?