If you’ve ever looked at a road map of the American southwest, your eyes probably paused briefly on the New Mexican city of Truth or Consequences. It’s an unusually long city name, all right, but it’s also a slightly menacing one. What do we need to tell the truth about? What are the dire consequences if we don’t? It strikes the same oddly militant note as the “Live Free or Die!” slogan emblazoned on New Hampshire license plates. But Truth or Consequences has always been near and dear to my heart. It’s the only city in America named after a game show.

View Truth or Consequences, New Mexico in a larger map