I don’t know how popular that was, certainly among Lebanese, but I read that sobriquet (if sobriquet is the right word) now and then, certainly about the city before the 1970s.
What other “ is the of ” related to geographic or political entities are out there?
Speaking of (Zionist) entities, Tel Aviv is the New York of the Middle East. I just made that up, but it sounds right as far as it goes. Which reminds me, the Israel or Tel Aviv tourist board had (has) a pathetic little campaign to brand Tel Aviv “The Big Orange.” Another approved journalistic-y phrase, which had a longer and less embarrassing life, was “Silicon Wadi” (a wadi is the Arabic wore, adopted in Hebrew, for dry riverbed). I think that was less embarrassing because of the precedent of slapping “silicon” onto other regions–didn’t Boston have something like that?
What’s interesting is that the so-named city or area, as in the above, assuming the residents give a damn, is that it acknowledges itself as a requiring some reflected glory, which when you think of it is kind of insulting.
None of them are my creations. I have heard the Edinburgh one many times - they never shut up about it in Edinburgh - and each of Stockholm, St Petersburg and Brugge more than once. The others, I confess, I found by googling for the purposes of this thread.
London doesn’t seem to get used much as a metaphor. I did some googling and the only thing I could find was a description of Manchester as the London of the North.
So you’re saying Manchester has had an entente cordiale with itself?
ETA: I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like some sex practice or other
I’ve heard Buenos Aires, Argentina being referred to as the “Paris of South America”. Kyrgyzstan has been dubbed by some sources as the “Switzerland of Central Asia”. Mostly due to it’s scenic beauty. Bangalore has been dubbed as the “Indian Silicon Valley”.
I think I read once that Haifa is the San Francisco of Israel. They were referring to it as a modern metropolitan seafront city.
I’ve heard that when God gives the world an enema, He’s inserting the nozzle into New Jersey. Personally, I find it difficult to disagree with that sentiment. So, I’ll allow the student to rephrase that to fit the equation.
And the ‘Florence of the North’ isn’t Florence but Dresden. (Or the various other places that have claimed to be so with rather less success.)
That’s probably because cities within the British Empire that wanted to compare themselves to London instead tried to claim to the much contested title of ‘Second City of the Empire’.