Talk:2480: No, The Other One

We might want a table for this comic, with three columns: one for the name of the town, one for which state the copycat is in, and one for the original. We could also add a column for "why the original is well known," but that might be a bit much. 108.162.245.124 20:38, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

I agree, this feels like a very table-able comic. Especially to get all the cities and not make readers try to see "hey, did I miss one?" 172.70.117.158 20:49, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

I think the term copy-cat should not be used here, since Lincoln, IL, for instance is older and carries the name longer than Lincoln, NE.--162.158.88.74 21:05, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Although the people in Lincoln, UK (also Boston, Washington, Richmond, Plymouth, Newhaven...) might have prior claims - Richmond is an even more interesting case, in fact. And of course I also recognise Lisbon and others. 141.101.98.244 21:26, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

May I suggest merging the first two columns and just listing [City, State] under "Place name in comic"? MajorBurns (talk) 21:38, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

In the map there are (at least) three Lincoln, two Jamestown, five Houston... Vdm (talk) 20:52, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

There is a Jamestown in NY and PA also. I would expect to find a Jamestown in at least half of the states. Rtanenbaum (talk) 22:06, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

There seems to be an extra dot in the northeast corner of Colorado - It looks like it might correspond with the Atlanta label, but there is no Atlanta in Colorado. Based on the position of the dot I'm guessing it may correspond to Akron or Yuma.--MajorBurns (talk) 21:56, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Google Maps says there's an Atlanta, Colorado, but it is in the south-east corner of the state, not where the dot is. It looks like it is in the middle of nowhere outside of Springfield. Blaisepascal (talk) 00:42, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Jersey Shore PA - I just drove from New Jersey across the state of Pennsylvania, and saw the sign for Jersey Shore in the mountains in the middle of PA. What the? Turns out there was a town founded by two brothers from New Jersey called Waynesburg. When a neighboring town wanted to insult them by calling them "Jersey Shore" they went ahead and officially made Jersey Shore the name of the town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore,_Pennsylvania. I wonder how many people turn off the highway in the middle of PA wanting to go to the Jersey Shore hundreds of miles away. Rtanenbaum (talk) 22:06, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Why no Hollywood, Florida? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood,_Florida

Same reason there's no Richmond, Dublin, or Pittsburg (admittedly, a different spelling), California, just to name some of the closest ones to me. The map would be solid black if it labeled every "other one." Borglord (talk) 01:57, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

..No Springfields? Really? There's gotta be 30+ of them! Danish (talk) 02:00, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

The comic doesn't seem to include the duplicates that are fairly well known, like Hollywood, FL. And the prevalence of Springfield is well known due to "The Simpsons". I think Groening chose that name because it wouldn't be associated with any particular state. Barmar (talk) 04:06, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

`The most frequently occurring community name varies through the years. In a past year, it was "Midway" with 212 occurrences and "Fairview" in second with 202. More recently, "Fairview" counted 288 and "Midway" 256. The name "Springfield" is often thought to be the only community name appearing in each of the 50 States, but at last count it was in only 34 states.` https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-most-common-citytown-name-united-states Steve (talk) 02:48, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

The comic has been updated to remove Charlestown and move Salem, CT. The extra dot in Colorado remains, however. The image attachment has been updated, but I think I'm still seeing the cached version. Orion205 (talk) 03:47, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

While we're on the subject, I thought it was more likely referencing Charles Town, WV. There are quite a lot of Charlestown locations and I don't think any of them are particularly famous. Which is probably why it was removed. Shamino (talk) 13:54, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Since so many of the names are duplicated multiple times, shouldn't the title be "No, An Other One"? Barmar (talk) 04:06, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

I'm surprised he missed Minneapolis, Kansas (about 75 miles west of Manhattan). Though maybe it would've made Kansas too crowded. --Aaron of Mpls (talk)

I'm surprised he missed Duluth, GA too, but we can't have everything we want. ( --Don from Rochester . . . but not from New York ;^) Oh yeah; there's also a Buffalo in MN too. 172.70.34.190 11:00, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

In Indiana, there's also another Nashville, another Columbus, a Kokomo... even a Mexico. If every fairly well-known place name were included, wherever it was duplicated, it would need one of those scrollable mega-maps, just to fit it all. -- Just visiting from Indiana, 12:53 UTC 24 June 2021

I'd like to see a map of all these. Lines linking each of the dots to the location of the more famous town. Possibly with lines in different colours connecting to the oldest and largest other ones, where they're not the same as the most famous one. (I suspect a significant number of the "oldest" lines would point off the right edge of the image) Angel (talk) 08:37, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

There's also a Bowling Green, Missouri. WhiteDragon (talk) 13:12, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

I wish Lansing Illinois (just south of Chicago off I-80) had made the list. When I was traveling there for work, our hotel reservations were frequently messed up, because the central booking office had us in Michigan. 172.70.130.144 13:17, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Reminds me of the time a "Microsoft tech support" scammer called and claimed to be calling from Lansing despite obviously being in a call center in India. When we asked what state Lansing was in, he claimed to be calling from "Lansing, Miami." 172.69.63.121 13:41, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

I feel like there is an opportunity for adding "Other examples not in comic" such as Brooklyn, Iowa or the absurd number of Mount Pleasants OddOod (talk)

At first, I thought about suggesting this, as well. But, it would be an enormous list (orders of magnitude longer than the ones that _are_ in the comic), and therefore not really tenable. For example, I sometimes describe the place I live as being on the line from Jamaica to Florida, adjacent to Jacksonville and just off Halifax. That's Florida, MA and the rest in southern Vermont. That's four just within 20 miles of where I sit. Also, I grew up in Bristol (RI, not England), but there are about 40 places in the US with that name. And, on a different tack the nearby "city" actually promotes itself in being the _only_ place named Brattleboro. MAP (talk) 22:27, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

I can't believe they missed Dublin and/or Albany in the SF bay area in California!

I actually have a place in Bangor,NY it confuses people all the time Mr.Do

Is the State of Washington not considered more significant than a mere district? 172.69.35.149 18:14, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

I mean, Washington DC is the capital of the entire country, so both are very significant. 172.69.33.97 20:08, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Ontario, CA - I have gotten packages that originated in Ontario, CA and wondered why they were shipping from Canada, until I realized that they were coming from Ontario, California. Rtanenbaum (talk) 20:57, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

How did Lebanon come to be such a popular name (sixth most common according to the Wikipedia list)? 162.158.92.182 09:04, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

How about entries for what the lesser-known city is known for? I can start: Austin MN is home of Hormel, maker of Spam, and features the Spam Museum. Who is next? 172.70.126.58 10:29, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Richmond, VT is home of a person (also apparently given the job of "Weigher Of Coal") who helped to establish the name of Spam (as in unwanted advertising)... 141.101.99.79 11:14, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

So, anyway, the Transcript is both empty and marked incomplete. Really, it would at best be a Transcriptised non-tabular list of the named places, grouped to their 'other one' states. I can't see much more that can be done, save for "line-drawn state lines and dots" being mentioned. It's very much an inferior copy of the table itself, but definitely should be there to fulfil the general needs of the Transcript. I'll do it myself if nobody else has (or otherwise resolved) by the time the next comic goes up. 141.101.99.79 11:14, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Agree that there should be a transcript. It should mention what type of map and that all states have their abbreviation in gray text. Then proceed approximately in reading order giving each states abbreviation and then the cities mentioned in each state. That would be great. Do not have the time the next week, else this was something I often have done with large transcripts. --Kynde (talk) 20:54, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

I prepped a version that satisfies almost all your demands, already, except that it's arranged alphabetical to state ID, because that seemed more logical to dive into than to try a 'reading order' of any kind. I also took a couple of other small liberties with the usual Transcript notation to improve understanding, not having found a prior example that has done this in a 'better' way. I'll pop it in right now and then leave it to the multitudinous Gods Of Wikiediting to correct it, 'correct' it, improve it and 'improve' it as they see fit. Fill yer boots! 141.101.98.124 21:42, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

here is a challenge: find a regex that matches all the cities in this map in the top half of the US, but not the ones in the bottom half. have fun and dont use the auto-regex-golf thing, thats just no fun. :) 172.69.63.7 16:40, 25 June 2021 (UTC)Bumpf

Unless I misunderstand you, it's probably impossible. Houston in Ohio is in the top half of the map (however you define that line) while the Houston in the usual Alaska map-discontinuity is in the bottom half of the map. And I bet that a moment's search will find others amongst the shared names. 141.101.99.104 17:35, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Bowling Green (OH and FL) splits even on true latitude, at well within each band of top/bottom value ranges. Assuming you don't add the home-state code (which could be the only thing needed to even try to regex, if you do), there's no wedge you can apply. 162.158.158.105 22:10, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Using Automatic tools is always fun! fun-ctional. 162.158.91.183 12:32, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

Bloomington MN is an odd one — it is both larger by area and by population than Bloomington IN! 141.101.98.206 20:31, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Bloomington, IL is comparable in population and slightly larger in area than Bloomington, IN; Bloomington, MN has IL beat in both metrics. If counting Bloominton-Normal, IL as one twinned city, it easily beats both 172.70.130.87 01:51, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

Even if there's no plans for a wall around Mexico, NY, maybe that's who Trump expected would pay for his wall. Barmar (talk) 13:19, 26 June 2021 (UTC)

I'm really annoyed that he included Portland. Doesn't everybody know about Portland, ME?

NYC here - I had no idea about Portland, ME 172.70.117.92 01:44, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

Here's how he might have come up with this list. (1) Find all duplicates in a list of U.S. city names. (2) Select the top 100 (searched on the web, occurring on the web, etc.) names (or enough to fill the comic nicely). An alternate (2) is select the top 100 (or some number) largest cities of those. Moscow,ID

I likewise wondered about the omission of Hollywood, FL (as well as Miami, OH) but it’s true that it can’t list every single one. It would be interesting to list some of the other pronunciation differences, as is currently done for Newark. (E.g., Albany, GA is pronounced al-BEN-ee) Miamiclay (talk) 18:15, 2 July 2021 (UTC)

I think you mean Oxford, Ohio; home to Miami University. [1] 162.158.166.117 07:28, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

There's also Cleveland, Mississippi; Princeton, Indiana; and Jackson, New Jersey. JsfasdF252 (talk) 00:18, 6 August 2021 (UTC)

In the New England area, there are quite a few towns with duplicate names, probably brought over with the colonists. Seems all the New England states have a Milford, a Bedford, a Plymouth, A Belmont, a Winchester...

How do you miss London, OH?

There are places in China whose name literally translates to "Pennsylvania", "Connecticut"^{[citation needed]} and "Texas" respectively, and this can lead to confusing translations on public signs. Imagine that you see "Welcome to Pennsylvania" in China. ^{[citation needed]} Additionally, a word that literally translates to "Washington" can be found in names of apartment groups. ^{[citation needed]} --ColorfulGalaxy (talk) 10:45, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

Also, there are 3 places called Buda in the US – a city in Texas, a village in Illinois and an unincorporated community in Nebraska. In the same county as the latter, there is also a city called Ravenna and a township called Odessa. There are so many place names in the US that are homographs or homophones of other place names (both in and outside the US) that they just require a much bigger map. 172.68.50.126 20:09, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Just done a bit of checking, and currently Washington seems to be the most popular US placename (named for the person, I would imagine, rather than the ancestral home that he was patronimically named for), then Springfield (descriptively geonymic, probably), Franklin (again, mostly for the man?) and Greenville (another geonym). ((Above, "Midway" and others were mentioned, it's possible that my checked list has a different qualifying criterium than the list looked at for that answer.)

Looking worldwide, San José has thousands of examples, by some counts, but also with a heavy emphasis on "San"s and "Santa"s in that obvious thematic vein as you continue down that particular list. Maybe a few "no horse" 'town's in that tally, though.

In the UK, we have almost a dozen Newports, scattered around. And more if you count names with Newport in them, like Newport Pagnell. Which (as an example) is 70 miles from the sea, but then Newport (as it was, give or take spelling, in Norman and even pre-Norman times before being gifted to the Pagnell family) actually means "New Market-town", just to indicate why you shouldn't expect all Newports to be coastal (or on significantly navigable trading rivers of some historic note). – And there are dozens of Newport places in the US, but how many are purely descriptive of originally being an actual new port and how many are more just imitative of original places (or named for people, themselves named for places of (familial) origin) in a suitable/unsuitable geophysical locale to match the inference, I wouldn't care to say. 172.70.162.170 22:28, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

I actually live in "the other" Bloomington. --108.162.216.53 01:27, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Hello from Phoenix, Oregon! 172.71.146.18 (talk) 17:37, 24 January 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)