> You realise, of course, that all of York, Jersey and Hampshire are places in the United Kingdom, which is outside the entire United States of America? If the "New" places you speak of were to drop the "New" part, the names would become ambiguous.

I'm sure he realizes this, yes. Howard's style is to promote thought or humor by dismissing the rote facts that cut it off. It doesn't work if you don't play along.

As for ambiguity, some statistics that haven't caused any problems from ambiguity yet:

- We've got a state and a district named Washington.
- The largest city in Maine and the largest city in Oregon are both named Portland.
- We've got 201 different cities called "Fairview."
- 29 of those 201 Fairviews are in Tennessee. 22 of them are in Alaska.
- There is a similar plethora of U.S. towns called "Franklin," "Centerville," "Mount Pleasant," "Five Points," "Oak Grove," "Salem," "Midway," and "Riverside."