1864: "City Nicknames"

[PKM]

Title text: "This place has so many demonyms. Northlanders. Fair Folk. Honey Barons. Lake Dwellers. Treasurers. Swamp Watchers. Dream Farmers. Wellfolk. Rockeaters. Forgotten Royals. Remote Clients. Barrow-Clerks. The People of Land and Sky."

I feel like there are probably a lot of injokes/references here I'm not getting. "Remote clients" is IT-speak and "Rockeaters" comes from Neverending Story. What else am I missing?

[Hiferator]

I am assuming most of them are variations of titles of existing or fictional cities. Let's find them all!

So far I've only got:

• Moebius Strip: maths joke
• The Empty Set: maths joke
• The Meta-City: play on Mega-City
• Big Mauve: play on Big Apple (New York)
• City of many Daughters: play on City of many Sons (don't know which city)
• The City of Angles: play on The City of Angels (Los Angeles)

The title text seems to be the same with names for the inhabitants. They sound a lot more fantasy-like overall though.

Star Wars also has Rock Eaters in some video game.

[PKM]

There's a real Bird City in Kansas, but you can also nominate your city to be a Bird City USA which seems to be a wildlife conservancy thing.

As of now, Googling "people of land and sky" returns this thread and nothing else.

[rhomboidal]

I believe St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers and St. Louis the patron saint of layover tourists.

[FOARP]

"The Meeting Place" is the city of Wroclaw in Poland, I only know this because I used to live there though - I was thinking these must all be fake until I saw that one and then started picking up on all the other potentially genuine ones.

[Eutychus]

Thousand Spires appears to be Prague.

[da Doctah]

Seattle: The King City.
Cincinnati: The Queen City.
Albuquerque: The Duke City.

(That's sixty percent of a Jeopardy! category right there....)

[cellocgw]

No good can come of this, I tell you.
Given that the new season just started last night, I'm amazed that nicknames for cities (and the current ruling tribes) within 5000 km of Westeros haven't been posted yet.

Then there are categories:

Cities in space
Metaphorical cities in songs
Cities of Catan

[orthogon]

Reminds me of a joke, whose author and origin I forget:

"Ah, Cambridge. The city of dreaming spires."
"Actually, that's Oxford. Cambridge is the city of perspiring dreams."

(Full disclosure: I'm a Cantabrigian).

[trpmb6]

It wasn't listed but Wichita, KS is the Air Capital of the World. I wouldn't consider it to be anymore, but at one point I think the title was well deserved. The name was one of the reasons our local government decided our airport badly needed to be updated. It's kind of a poor mark on the city when you call yourself the Air Capital of the World and your airport terminal looks like a timewarp from the 50s.

[moody7277]

Thousand Spires appears to be Prague.

That one I thought sounded more like something I read in H.P. Lovecraft.

[cellocgw]

Seattle: The King City.
Cincinnati: The Queen City.
Albuquerque: The Duke City.

(That's sixty percent of a Jeopardy! category right there....)

Except that Manchester, NH is also a Queen City.

Also it isn't strictly 60% because you need an extra Answer for the "Jeopardy at home bonus" folks.

Shouldn't Wayne, NJ be the "Duke City" ?
or maybe Ellington, Missouri.

[sfmans]

Shouldn't Wayne, NJ be the "Duke City" ?
or maybe Ellington, Missouri.

No, that's Edinburgh (Scotland).

There have been various attempts to get this sort of thing started in the UK but they never seem to popularly catch on: My nearest major city is Mamchester and I have no idea whatsoever what the current civic slogan/motto/tagline for there is, for example ...

[monsterzero]

St. Louis is The Arch-y Bunker.

[trpmb6]

Some of these nicknames would make excellent movie titles as well.

[cellocgw]

Some of these nicknames would make excellent movie titles as well.

We on the Internet don't create movie titles. We only create names for our next band.

[Soupspoon]

My nearest major city is Mamchester and I have no idea whatsoever what the current civic slogan/motto/tagline for there is, for example ...

Well, there's currently the vogue for something to do with Bees. And nice typo, referencing back to Manchester's original name.

It is among the places called (at various times, in various contexts) "Britain's Second City", and locals to various cities will probably let you know that their city is <Industry> City, or possibly City Of <Cultural Ephemora> or similar ("Madchester! Mad for it!"). I don't think we go so much for "official plant, official bird, offishal fish" thing as the US. Anywhere worth its salt already has a coat of arms (likely older than America) with some likely symbol. Even if it's just a mediaeval pun that makes little sense anymore...

[PinkShinyRose]

My nearest major city is Mamchester and I have no idea whatsoever what the current civic slogan/motto/tagline for there is, for example ...

Well, there's currently the vogue for something to do with Bees. And nice typo, referencing back to Manchester's original name.

It is among the places called (at various times, in various contexts) "Britain's Second City", and locals to various cities will probably let you know that their city is <Industry> City, or possibly City Of <Cultural Ephemora> or similar ("Madchester! Mad for it!"). I don't think we go so much for "official plant, official bird, offishal fish" thing as the US. Anywhere worth its salt already has a coat of arms (likely older than America) with some likely symbol. Even if it's just a mediaeval pun that makes little sense anymore...

Also, half of Europe picked lions on their coat of arms. So it doesn't really differentiate to call yourself city (or country) of lions.

[kalira]

Seattle: The King City.
Cincinnati: The Queen City.
Albuquerque: The Duke City.

(That's sixty percent of a Jeopardy! category right there....)

Charlotte (NC) is also called the Queen City (for somewhat obvious reasons).
From an article about the "rivalry" between Charlotte and Cincinnati:

For the record, Charlotte claims ownership to the Queen City nickname because Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the wife of King George III of Great Britain. Cincinnati claims ownership because the city became known as “The Queen of the West” as its population grew in the late 18th Century with Americans pushing westward along the Ohio Valley.

(Charlotte is located in Mecklenburg County and named for the aforementioned Queen.)

[trpmb6]

Charlotte (NC) is also called the Queen City (for somewhat obvious reasons).
From an article about the "rivalry" between Charlotte and Cincinnati:

For the record, Charlotte claims ownership to the Queen City nickname because Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the wife of King George III of Great Britain. Cincinnati claims ownership because the city became known as “The Queen of the West” as its population grew in the late 18th Century with Americans pushing westward along the Ohio Valley.

(Charlotte is located in Mecklenburg County and named for the aforementioned Queen.)

"Queen of the West" just sounds stupid. I much prefer the St. Louis alternative "Gateway to the West"

Another gateway city (I only mention it because I traveled to Utah recently) is Brigham City, Utah: "Gateway to the World's Greatest Wild Bird Refuge."

[Soupspoon]

Bal Ham! Gateway to the south!


(Better link: https://youtu.be/6ewUOSlRDkk ...and extended(ish) later version...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RTWk9QIKS0 .)

[Steve the Pocket]

Reminds me of a joke, whose author and origin I forget:

"Ah, Cambridge. The city of dreaming spires."
"Actually, that's Oxford. Cambridge is the city of perspiring dreams."

Could be worse. Could be the city of expiring dreams.

[Quizatzhaderac]

The turbulent avocado.
The gateway to widdershins.
The doubled entendre.
The home of the homely.
The city of a million floors.
Where the sick hunt dragons.

Also, half of Europe picked lions on their coat of arms. So it doesn't really differentiate to call yourself city (or country) of lions.

A region should at least have native lions to make that claim, preferably in charge of the local polity.

[orthogon]

widdershins.

One of my favourite words, which I'd heinously forgotten. Thank you for reminding me! I only wish enough people knew it to allow to use it in normal conversation.

I'm also very fond of "oblong", which I use to mean "rectangular, but with a high aspect ratio" (similar to "oblate"). I've no idea whether it actually means that.

[player_03]

I'm 90% sure "Land of Trains and Fog" is a Homestuck reference. That said, the acronym "LOTAF" is already taken.

[Old Bruce]

widdershins.

One of my favourite words ...
I'm also very fond of "oblong", ...

Half of the time I figure oblong is a type of tea. The other half I try and remember what it is a collective noun for.
I was startled awake by an oblong of ... Tea merchants? Haberdashers? Graphic Novel Inkers? Peach Packers?

[Soupspoon]

widdershins.

One of my favourite words, which I'd heinously forgotten. Thank you for reminding me! I only wish enough people knew it to allow to use it in normal conversation.

I'm also very fond of "oblong", which I use to mean "rectangular, but with a high aspect ratio" (similar to "oblate"). I've no idea whether it actually means that.

Given the above, I would have thought you should be somewhat convinced that it's a synonym for "eldritch"!

(I have never got on with the oblong==elipsoidal/(unlobed-)leaflike definition, though. Rectangular, and that's it.)

[Draconaes]

I'm 90% sure "Land of Trains and Fog" is a Homestuck reference. That said, the acronym "LOTAF" is already taken.

I thought so too. He is apparently a fan of Homestuck, after all, otherwise I might consider it a stretch.

[Qwertystop]

• The City of Angles: play on The City of Angels (Los Angeles)

City of Angles may also be a reference to the eponymous city in the webnovel series of the same name (which was, of course, making the same joke).

[qvxb]

Babel - The Fzeyk$5dopal City

[orthogon]

widdershins.

One of my favourite words ...
I'm also very fond of "oblong", ...

Half of the time I figure oblong is a type of tea. The other half I try and remember what it is a collective noun for.
I was startled awake by an oblong of ... Tea merchants? Haberdashers? Graphic Novel Inkers? Peach Packers?

I love it. (Although collective nouns themselves are a frilly Victorian nonsense with which I can't be doing).

Turns out that oblong means exactly what I thought it meant. The main reason I like it is that, when I was at school, it was the first word we learned for the shape that we were subsequently taught to call a "rectangle". Consequently, it has a childish feel to it, which makes it delightful to use with a specific technical meaning.

I also fondly thought of it as being more Germanic, giving it the feel of "uncleftish beholding", but of course it's as Latinate as rectangle.

@Soupspoon: an oblong ellipse? No way. The appropriate word there is oval.

[Soupspoon]

(Although collective nouns themselves are a frilly Victorian nonsense with which I can't be doing).

"A nonsense of collective-nouns"... Hmmm...

@Soupspoon: an oblong ellipse? No way. The appropriate word there is oval.

I agree. Maybe some confusion with "oblate", or allowing rounded-cornering of a normally pin-sharp rectangle to get past the perception filter, but I've seen it otherwise asserted.

(Also, ovals are not necessarily ellipses, in the way that kites are not necessarily rhombi, but you can indeed call an ellipse an oval/a rhombus a kite - a doubly-symmetric one, instead of merely the one symmetry.)

[stopmadnessnow]

The Lake Dwellers, The People of the Earth and Sky and the Wellfolk all sound like Nymphs to me. Or the Wellfolk could be the people mentioned by the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.

[FOARP]

Shouldn't Wayne, NJ be the "Duke City" ?
or maybe Ellington, Missouri.

No, that's Edinburgh (Scotland).

There have been various attempts to get this sort of thing started in the UK but they never seem to popularly catch on: My nearest major city is Mamchester and I have no idea whatsoever what the current civic slogan/motto/tagline for there is, for example ...

Never takes off because it's too artificial, but there are a few cities that have long-standing nicknames that people actually use:

Edinburgh - Auld Reekie
Birmingham - Brum
Portsmouth - Pompey

[rmsgrey]

I live in (or, more precisely, adjacent to) "the toon".

[Adavistic Puma]

We on the Internet don't create movie titles. We only create names for our next band.

The "Horse Rotary" one reminded me of Horse Rotorvator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQTItE0jfQI, a great industrial album I'd just been listening to...

[pscottdv]

"Queen of the West" just sounds stupid. I much prefer the St. Louis alternative "Gateway to the West"

I love it because it reminds me of "Riders Radio Theater" which came to me "Live, from the queen city of the West, Cincinnati, Ohiooooo" every Sunday night. That show was a great way to forget my worries every Sunday night during a very stressful time in my life.

[mathmannix]

I think that would better describe San Francisco...

[Steve the Pocket]

Oh, and: Who else here actually knows more of "We Built This City" than the chorus? There's a bit in there with a fake radio announcer who says he's coming from "the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps!" just to further muddy the question of what city the song is referring to. (For the uninitiated, San Francisco, Cleveland, and New York, respectively. Probably the three most likely candidates to begin with because Starship is from San Francisco, Cleveland is said to be the birthplace of rock and roll, and New York just thinks it deserves every title worth handing out.) But I initially parsed it as "the city that rocks the city that never sleeps", which struck me as a creative and colorful way to refer to... I dunno, some city close to New York. You know, like... "New York is the city that never sleeps—because we keep them up at night!"

[orthogon]

Oh, and: Who else here actually knows more of "We Built This City" than the chorus? There's a bit in there with a fake radio announcer who says he's coming from "the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps!" just to further muddy the question of what city the song is referring to. (For the uninitiated, San Francisco, Cleveland, and New York, respectively. Probably the three most likely candidates to begin with because Starship is from San Francisco, Cleveland is said to be the birthplace of rock and roll, and New York just thinks it deserves every title worth handing out.) But I initially parsed it as "the city that rocks the city that never sleeps", which struck me as a creative and colorful way to refer to... I dunno, some city close to New York. You know, like... "New York is the city that never sleeps—because we keep them up at night!"

I remember arriving in NYC on a Greyhound from (I think) Bangor, ME at like 4am. Place looked pretty damned sleepy to me.

Come to think of it, never sleeping could probably serve as a workable definition of what a city is. I realise, though, that I'm using city as normally understood in the UK. I have the impression that the bar for citydom in the US is much lower. (There's a factoid about UK cities having to have a university or cathedral, but I'm pretty sure that appeared as a "klaxon question" on QI).