[Bell Historians] Orleans, ?, USA

[Peter Humphreys]

In days of yore - when I was still at school - I used to get irritated by
the American use of 'London, England' and 'Paris, France'. Where on earth
would you expect to find these capital cities?

However, I then started using this approach with English place names -
'Boston, Lincs' for example. I found this most useful. 

Unfortunately, in 1974, new county boundaries and the creation of
metropolitan districts meant, in many cases, that the associations became
redundant. I have never quite recovered from all this. 

Peter 
Peter Humphreys 
15 Mount Park, Bebington, Wirral. CH63 5RD
Tel: 0151-608 9434. Mobile: 07896 342 920
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-----Original Message-----
From: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com [mailto:bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Carl S Zimmerman
Sent: 22 December 2008 05:55
To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Bell Historians] Orleans, ?, USA

Changing the subject from "Re: Comparing profiles"...

Terminology that's appropriate within a company, where everyone knows 
the destination of an important contract, is not necessarily 
appropriate for reference outside the company, where that context is 
missing.

One of the peculiarities of the USA is that there are many instances 
of city & town names which are used in more than one state.  (The 
"classic" example is Springfield - about half of the states have a 
town or city with that name.)  For this reason, it is always 
appropriate, and almost always necessary, to include the name of the 
state when mentioning the name of a city or town.

One special case is New York, since that name is shared by a city and 
a state.  While it's OK to refer to the city as "New York, New York," 
it is much more common to distinguish them as "New York City" and 
"New York state."  (If you wonder why City is capitalized and state 
is not - it's because we've always done it that way!)

Actually, even if a town name appears in only one state, it is 
important to use the state name in almost any context outside of that 
state.  The reason is that road maps, the commonest non-computer 
geographical reference tool over here, are always indexed by state. 
Google Maps may accept a single town name if it's unambiguous, but 
even there you're likely to need the state name eventually.  Type in 
"Orleans" and you'll get "Orléans, France."  Type in "Orleans, USA" 
and you'll get a list of nine places from which to choose.  (Oddly, 
if you type in just "Springfield," or "Springfield, USA," Google Maps 
will only give you Springfield, Massachusetts, perhaps because that's 
by far the largest of the several Springfields around the country.)

In short, if you are referring to a city/town in the USA, and you're 
not in the USA, always supply the name of the state in which it lies. 
(If you don't know it, say so, or else find out!)  You can't go 
wrong, and you'll probably avoid some confusion on the part of your 
listeners/readers.

Carl

P.S.  Can anyone tell me just where in Orleans, MA, this ring of 10 
is to be installed?  I've not seen mention of it before this 
discussion.