reverse fictionary asides

[William Quale]

On Fri, 16 Sep 2005, Nora Munoz wrote:
> There are also all kinds of small towns that maybe
> once were recognized on their own behalf, but now, the
> Post Office took away their official designation.  I
> am from West Virginia, and there are many such towns
> there.  For instance, Sherrard, WV, has a ZIP code for
> Wheeling, WV, but it is a distinct area on WV88 with a
> grade school and a junior high school.  Sherrard is
> even in a different county than Wheeling. Strangely,
> Bethlehem, Elm Grove, and other Wheeling suburbs are
> allowed to use their own names, even though they have
> Wheeling's ZIP code.

There's similar oddness on the Main Line outside of Philadelphia.  There
used to be a town called Rosemont, just west of Bryn Mawr.  It's still got
a separate train station and residents still say they're from there, put
"Rosemont, PA" on their mail, etc; but the Post Office considers it part
of Bryn Mawr now, they share a ZIP, and the "preferred" way to address
mail to those folks is "Bryn Mawr, PA".

But Bryn Mawr's existence is also nebulous: some while back, Bryn Mawr,
Haverford, Ardmore, and Lower Merion consolidated their municipal services
into a larger entity called "Lower Merion".  They share a municipal
government, police force, school system, and library system, among other
things; but the Post Office considers them all to be separate.

And, iIrc, Rosemont is in Delaware County, Bryn Mawr is in Montgomery
Count, Haverford is in Delaware County, and Ardmore is in Montgomery
County again.

--Will




 quale at quale.org  http://www.quale.org	http://www.strangehorizons.com

"i've gone to sweep cobwebs beyond the sky, but i'll be back by and by."