5 ms·

This is interesting in large part as a demonstration of how bizarre/indefinite the idea of being "from" a place is. For instance, Cambridge, MA isn't headlined

This is interesting in large part as a demonstration of how bizarre/indefinite the idea of being "from" a place is. For instance, Cambridge, MA isn't headlined by a famous MIT/Harvard academic, or local political figure, or even Neil Gaiman- but instead by Bhumibol Adulyadej, the previous king of Thailand, who was born there while his father was studying at Harvard, and left at the age of 2. Meanwhile, Boston gets John Cena, who was born in a far-out suburb.

mcguire 7y ago
That is strange; most places I checked were dominated by figures from popular culture. Huntsville, AL, for example...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rhcom2 7y ago
No mention of Bruce Springsteen along the entire Jersey shore too.
- vonmoltke 7y ago
  He's attached to Bradley Beach. Oddly, his actual birthplace (Long Branch) went to Audrey Hepburn's first husband.
- moate 7y ago
  Jersey shore resident under the age of 100 here: Good! /s That said, it's very weird. he's listed on wikipedia as tagged with "People from..." several towns in Monmouth county. Max Weinberg takes one town, but several of the towns Bruce is listed with are taken over by relatively unknown people (Sorry Mel Ferrer and Charlie Puth)
umanwizard 7y ago
Another point is that in some parts of the country the concept of “city” breaks down. There is basically no meaningful difference between being from suburban neighborhoods of Glendale, AZ and nearby suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix. (People who are too young to be dealing with water bills, garbage collection, etc. often don’t even know which one they live in). Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”.
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  > Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”. Oh what the heck! How does that even work? So the official city you live in is not the city that USPS considers you to live in? If a federal form asks you what city you live in, what do you put down (without committing perjury if there is such a risk)? Do you write something different for state and local governments? And how does one figure out what city they officially live in then? Sorry I have so many questions but this one is just twisting my brain in so many ways!
  - funkymike 7y ago
    Where I am from cities cannot legally cross county boundaries. But the people who live just across the county line still have a postal address with the name of the city because doing anything else would not make sense on a practical level. In fact I'm not sure if they are technically in a city at all.
    - umanwizard 7y ago
      Cities can cross county boundaries in some states, though -- NYC, for example, contains five counties within its city borders.
  - umanwizard 7y ago
    Well, not everyone even lives in an incorporated city or town. Rural areas are usually not part of them, for example. So I don't think there are any federal forms that would ask you that. As far as I know they just ask for your address. For example, the form to apply for a passport is here: https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11.pdf https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11.pdf . The only place it asks for city is as part of the mailing address. In general, the ways individual states decide to divide up their local administration are just not something the federal government cares about. Arizona could decide tomorrow to abolish all its cities and counties and just administer everything centrally, and they'd be perfectly allowed to do that under federal law. Another example of federal institutions not matching local ones is court districts. The Southern District of New York (i.e., of New York State) contains part of NYC. The Eastern District contains a different part, and also land that is not part of NYC.
eesmith 7y ago
I think it's the same error in their methodology that I described at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054845 . The map uses the list of people from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:People_from_Cambridge,_Massachusetts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:People_from_Cambridge... . However, that page contains sub- and even sub-sub-categories. Matt Damon, who likely has more page views than Adulyadej, is listed in subcategory "Actors from Cambridge, Massachusetts‎", sub-sub-category "Male actors from Cambridge, Massachusetts‎".
jandrese 7y ago
John Cena was apparently born in many places, just like Dwayne Johnson.

mcguire 7y ago

That is strange; most places I checked were dominated by figures from popular culture. Huntsville, AL, for example...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

rhcom2 7y ago

No mention of Bruce Springsteen along the entire Jersey shore too.

vonmoltke 7y ago
He's attached to Bradley Beach. Oddly, his actual birthplace (Long Branch) went to Audrey Hepburn's first husband.
moate 7y ago
Jersey shore resident under the age of 100 here: Good! /s That said, it's very weird. he's listed on wikipedia as tagged with "People from..." several towns in Monmouth county. Max Weinberg takes one town, but several of the towns Bruce is listed with are taken over by relatively unknown people (Sorry Mel Ferrer and Charlie Puth)

umanwizard 7y ago

Another point is that in some parts of the country the concept of “city” breaks down. There is basically no meaningful difference between being from suburban neighborhoods of Glendale, AZ and nearby suburban neighborhoods of Phoenix. (People who are too young to be dealing with water bills, garbage collection, etc. often don’t even know which one they live in). Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”.

mehrdadn 7y ago
> Even the US Postal Service doesn’t necessarily respect local political boundaries. I grew up in Phoenix, close to the Glendale border, and my address said “Glendale, AZ”. Oh what the heck! How does that even work? So the official city you live in is not the city that USPS considers you to live in? If a federal form asks you what city you live in, what do you put down (without committing perjury if there is such a risk)? Do you write something different for state and local governments? And how does one figure out what city they officially live in then? Sorry I have so many questions but this one is just twisting my brain in so many ways!
- funkymike 7y ago
  Where I am from cities cannot legally cross county boundaries. But the people who live just across the county line still have a postal address with the name of the city because doing anything else would not make sense on a practical level. In fact I'm not sure if they are technically in a city at all.
  - umanwizard 7y ago
    Cities can cross county boundaries in some states, though -- NYC, for example, contains five counties within its city borders.
- umanwizard 7y ago
  Well, not everyone even lives in an incorporated city or town. Rural areas are usually not part of them, for example. So I don't think there are any federal forms that would ask you that. As far as I know they just ask for your address. For example, the form to apply for a passport is here: https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11.pdf https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds11.pdf . The only place it asks for city is as part of the mailing address. In general, the ways individual states decide to divide up their local administration are just not something the federal government cares about. Arizona could decide tomorrow to abolish all its cities and counties and just administer everything centrally, and they'd be perfectly allowed to do that under federal law. Another example of federal institutions not matching local ones is court districts. The Southern District of New York (i.e., of New York State) contains part of NYC. The Eastern District contains a different part, and also land that is not part of NYC.

eesmith 7y ago

I think it's the same error in their methodology that I described at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20054845 . The map uses the list of people from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:People_from_Cambridge,_Massachusetts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:People_from_Cambridge... . However, that page contains sub- and even sub-sub-categories. Matt Damon, who likely has more page views than Adulyadej, is listed in subcategory "Actors from Cambridge, Massachusetts‎", sub-sub-category "Male actors from Cambridge, Massachusetts‎".

jandrese 7y ago

John Cena was apparently born in many places, just like Dwayne Johnson.