Eldorado because today my letter is "E"

 
I loved the sound of the word Eldorado, it sort of reminded me of the old westerns I used to watch as a child. So thought I'd do a little research to find out the true meaning of it.

Wow what a Pandora's box I've opened, Eldorado has been used to describe so many different things from towns or cities  in many countries all around the world, an odd assortment of  music groups, quite a few songs and a Cadillac motor car has one of it's many models named the 'Eldorado' which in my mind is a very fitting name for such an iconic vehicle.

The Dictionary gives a few of different meanings, from 'mythical city of gold'  to the less enchanting explanations such as  'imaginary land of great wealth' or place of abundance or opportunity'. The one that rings my bell is the mythical city of gold as it conjures up images of the mighty Incas or the Aztecs and gold!

Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Australia, the US, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Mars, Colombia and Canada all have towns or cities named El Dorado, how many of them befit the title I wonder.

Bogota in Colombia has named it's international airport Eldorado, there is a Guyanese Rum named after it too.

El Dorado is a Japanese rock band, Neil Young had a 1989 EP titled El Dorado and a German band called '17 Hippies' had a song titled El Dorado. The Electric Light Orchestra named an album and a song after El Dorado and many more used the title. I wonder what the impetus was for all of these groups, was it the hope of finding their own mythical land of opportunity. Or does it just have a good ring to it!  

Then there's the casino in Nevada named Eldorado, what a great name for a casino of course...come to think of it I guess I must have associated it with gold or wealth or something along those lines now that I'm thinking about it. But I can't say I ever thought about it in any depth before but thinking about Casino's and Cadillacs now,  it certainly would imply wealth!

It's also a name used extensively in films, a handful of books, the odd soap opera, a musical comedy and even a French silent movie...so there must be something to this El Dorado connotation.

I think I might have seen the odd scratch-it ticket or lottery ticket named El Dorado along with sparkling gold as part of the logo. Yes I'm certain I've been under the influence of the old El Dorado term before as I am more convinced as I write that I always knew it was some well worn symbol for wealth, not just any wealth but GOLD!

Now I'm back to reminiscing about those old western movies I so loved to watch as a kid and that I might add were an intrinsic part of my family life....after all didn't everyone watch cowboys and indians as they were known, way back when!!! Probably due to the lack of any other options, quite likely all we were given on our black and white tv that only ran for what seemed like a few hours a day into the early evening....but we always had the good old test pattern which held a certain type of fascination in itself! But I do digress :)

So in closing, El Dorado has been an interesting word for my day and I'm sure I'll be super sensitive to the word wherever I go over the next little while...I think I have even seen apartment blocks named El Dorado and I know I'll think of more examples as I try to put this out of my mind and not spend any more time on such a wasteful pursuit!!! Only kidding, I love it of course!

But wait there's more.....a super computer called Eldorado, a period of Colombian football, a Japanese wrestling program and finally a Canadian mine which somebody just had to name Eldorado of course!