This never happens in Oklahoma City
“My mother always thought I lived in Canada,” says Gene Wigglesworth, owner of a muffler shop in Vancouver, who’s modeling a shirt of his own design at right.
That’s “Vancouver [not B.C.] Washington [not D.C.] Clark County [not Nevada] Near Portland, Or. [not Maine].”
Image crisis in the making? Maybe so:
How … can a former mill town that has become an increasingly assertive city, a place that courts high-tech companies and takes pride in its expanding university campus, make a name for itself when another city with the same name in the same misty vicinity of North America has already done so and then some?
It could be worse. You could be in Columbus:
It’s not that it is overshadowed by a more famous or bigger Columbus, but rather that Columbus is simply a common name for cities in America (Columbus, Indiana; Columbus, Georgia) and that the word Columbus to many people means the Columbus in their own state. Also, until recently Columbus was in the shadow of Cleveland and Cincinnati, so didn’t have longstanding historic recognition. It is probably the biggest city in America where you always have to give the state, not just the city name — Columbus, Ohio. It is probably the largest city out there where a Wikipedia search on its name takes you to a disambiguation page.
sya »
13 December 2009 · 10:14 am
Maybe it’ll get worse when we start colonizing other planets. Although it would be kind of hilarious to have a Columbus in Alpha Centauri.
I personally think it’s funny when people first assume I’m talking about Moscow, Russia rather than Moscow, Idaho.
As for Nashville, I do not understand why everyone thinks it’s the one in Indiana rather than the one in Tennessee that I’m mentioning. You’d think that also ranting about country music in the same sentence would clue people in.
Kay Dennison »
13 December 2009 · 10:19 am
And Bellevue is just a couple hours away from Columbus — i.e., Ohio!
CGHill »
13 December 2009 · 10:27 am
I’m thinking that every colony needs a Springfield.
McGehee »
13 December 2009 · 7:01 pm
I’ve never been happy with the name I’ve been using for the fictional city in the “novel” I’ve been “trying” to “write,” but I’ve just come up with a name that I like.
Leechfield.
Kirk »
14 December 2009 · 8:48 am
I used to live in Iowa City, Iowa. People were constantly confusing our state with either Idaho or Ohio. Predictably enough, t-shirts sprang up, reading “I’m from Idaho City, Ohio”.
JC »
14 December 2009 · 3:48 pm
Are you sure you don’t mean the one in Texas?
CGHill »
14 December 2009 · 5:12 pm
Is that like Iowa Park? (Which is, if I remember correctly, a long way from Columbus, Texas.)