Don’t feel rained on. I never heard of Arcata, either.
My city doesn’t need a qualifer, but I’m more likely to say I live in Hawaii, rather than saying I live in Honolulu.
I suppose it’s gauche to quote oneself, but this thought came to mind: the only reason I know the state/location of a lot of places in this country is because I’ve heard it as <city>,<state>. Places I know nothing about other than the fact that <city> maps to <state> because I heard or read it somewhere and it stuck in my head.
For example, I can rummage through my mental card catalog and come up with the following small-town places in the USA (and all of which I’ve verified I’ve got right through Wikipedia):
Spokane, Washington
Eugene, Oregon
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Walla Walla, Washington
Racine, Wisconsin
Bloomington, Indiana
OK, the name “Walla Walla, Washington” is involved in several old-time comedy routines, and Racine I recognize as the name of one of the places with a women’s pro baseball club from the movie A League Of Their Own (when Dot’s sister gets traded to Racine). I don’t really know why I know it’s in Wisconsin.
And Eugene, Oregon is the subject of a one-liner in the Simpsons episode where they do a retelling of the story of Sacajawea.
So while Zeldar seems to think I’m reveling in ignorance, what it really is is that I find it interesting to think about why or how I know these things at all.
But Ypsilanti? Spokane? Bloomington? Why and where have I learned anything about these places, and why has nothing stuck in my head other than what state they’re in?
Charleston, capital of WV, adds a little more confusion; Charles Town, WV, a little place located right in the spout of the teapot, adds even more.
You make a good point about how and why you know the names of places. Looking at maps or atlases is how I know a huge majority of what I know about the subject. It’s interesting to me, but I find it doesn’t stick. I knew the state capitals before I started school because Daddy taught them to me along with the books in the Bible and other assorted trivia. And I’m pretty sure at least half of my class when I graduated high school couldn’t name over half of them (capitals or books). I know I’ll miss at least five of them today if asked to do the list.
But what continues to bug me is the relationships in space of geographical features. What’s north of what? What’s east of what? How far is X from Y? That sort of thing. Only in the places where I have actually traveled do I know those things with any certainty.
I continue to be amazed that the entirety of South America is EAST of Atlanta! And if you go due south from Nashville you’ll end up in Honduras and miss the Yucatan Peninsula in the process.
As opposed to accusing you of reveling in ignorance, I’m letting you know that I own my own ignorance, but I try to fix it.
I guess my plan of world domination failing is quite evident in this thread. For had it occurred, my birthplace would be known around the world and visited annually on March 23 for eternity, in a town that since my plan failed, is destined to be known only for the “choo choo” song.
I failed you, Chattanooga.
Probably because there is only one Chicago, at least one well known Chicago. (I’m sure there are other Chicago’s in the world). So why say something someone already knows. Newspapers, at least in the old days, were laid out and space mattered a lot. Every letter used was a space that could’ve been sold as advertising.
It seems odd in today’s computer age, but at one time it added up quick
One that often trips me up is college towns. If the state isn’t in the school’s name, it’s often a mystery to me. And apparently not just me. I was watching a football game once and I asked what state Auburn was in. We were guessing several different southern states but none of us were sure. And Notre Dame - that’s somewhere in the midwest. Indiana? Illinois? The Ivy League colleges. Okay, I know Harvard’s in Massachusetts and Columbia and Cornell are in New York. But is it Yale in Connecticut and Princeton in New Jersey? Dartmouth in Rhode Island and Brown in New Hampshire? Or the other way around?
For those playing at home. Auburn’s in Alabama. Notre Dame’s in Indiana. Yale’s in New Haven, Connecticut. Princeton’s in New Jersey (which I can now remember because I recently visited there). Brown’s in Providence, Rhode Island (which I now remember thanks to a Family Guy joke). Dartmouth’s in Hanover, New Hampshire (which I now remember because I have relatives that live nearby).
I’ve often felt like Beaufort, SC, should be able to dispense with the state identifier as it is (so far as I know) the only BYOO-fort in the world; to the best of my knowledge all other Beauforts are pronounced BO-fort.
Knead
A Sandlapper among the Tar Heels
A subjective impression (of dubious validity) about the way certain people behave, with a rather venal motive attached to it, seemingly arbitrarily. You may want to stop and think about this some more, because the impression you’re leaving suggests that you’ve got this narrative in your head (“New Yorkers are smug”) that you’re eager to attach to any fact.
This is such a good point. Thanks for mentioning it in as gentle a way as you have. Regional attitudes seem to pervade so much of what is said at SDMB that it takes a gentle nudge like this one to see if the bias is really there or if it’s some sort of preconditioning that the bias must come up.
It’s hard to judge in some cases, but at least the question should be asked.
I don’t think size is the issue.
If someone says, “I’m flying to Charlotte on business next week,” he doesn’t have to add “North Carolina.” I just assume that’s what he means.
The only time you NEED to add the state name is when the wown in question…
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Is little-known, or
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Shares its name with another fairly well-known town.
Portland, Oregon is a large and prominent city, but there are enough Portlands in the U.S. (in Maine, for instance) that you should probably include the state name when you’re talking to someone outside Oregon.
The spider.
Since “Charlotte” is a not-terribly-uncommon name, the qualifier is definitely needed if there could be any confusion about whether you’re talking about a place or a person.
Not to quibble too much, but when you hear “I’m going to Charlotte this week” how many times out of 100 would you think that meant a person?
There is a Charlotte, Vermont, a quaint little town overlooking Lake Champlain. IIRC, it is pronounced sha-LOT. Which I guess is close, to a French pronounciation.
Definitely not in the league of Charlotte, NC but I have a connection to Charlotte VT.
Curiosity seekers might enjoy looking up Charlotte (and other place names)here. With no qualifications except USA I got 242 hits! A goodly number of those hits were in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.