Actually, CNN does the same thing on its New York map. It doesn’t put the word “County” in, but all the other counties in the state are refeerred to by their correct names (Otsego, Rensselaer, Westchester, etc.), while Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island are all given their borough names.
I stopped getting their bulk mail CD’s a few years ago and just assumed that meant they went out of business or something. I don’t even think I know anyone with an aol e-mail address any more.
Who gives a shit what the names of counties are? There’s a difference between dumbing down, and just ignoring irrelevant details for simplicity’s sake.
Anyone who does know the names of the counties will obviously understand what “Queens County” means. Anyone who doesn’t (like myself), and is trying to get information out of that map, will be happy to see “Queens County” instead “Whateverthefuck County”.
What are you going to whine about next, the fact that Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Massachusetts are listed as states when in reality, they’re technically “Commonwealths”?
I noticed this too on a couple of the maps I was looking at. At least on the ones I saw didn’t append the word “county” to the end. Then you could say that it wasn’t as bad if they used the borough names.
It’s a good thing for you that Queens is in Queens County, then.
But they’re not – they’re listed just as “Kentucky” and “Pennsylvania” and so on, which is fine. The OP doesn’t object to listing Brooklyn as Brooklyn, but there is no such thing as “Brooklyn County” in New York.