I’ve gone so far as to look up the difference between a city and a town, and the Wikipedia entry for City unhelpfully states, “there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings.”
Would a population of 83,000 make one think of a city? Perhaps, but I don’t think I live in a city. Look at today’s front page:
Aretha Franklin performed in Lewiston, New York Tuesday and she decided to stay here in town. She went to Johnny Rockets and was told that since she ordered her meal to go, she couldn’t sit in the seats provided for those who ordered an eat-in meal. Of course it’s completely silly. The restaurant is falling all over themselves to apologize, to the point where the restaurant CEO hopped aboard a plane to come and personally take care of damage control. The employee is 15 years old and she’s been on the job for just a week, so she can probably start looking elsewhere for work.
Still, this kind of stuff happens everywhere all the time. The only reason it’s news this time is it happened to a celebrity. But here, it’s front page, above the fold news because it’s the biggest news in town!
See what I mean?
Jessica
Well, a few days ago I heard about this story on CBC radio way over here in the City of Ottawa! It wasn’t a new item, though; it was a trivia question. Still, you know, big celeb being dissed in our oh-so-polite country=big story!