Re: geography nerds?

In article <ep8nr353rsmedtcc3cclbfpgb6dhovcugj@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
mike weber  <fair****tfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:26:25 -0800 (PST), johan.g.larson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>wrote:
>>Is anyone here enough of a geography nerd to settle this? Is every
>>part of the US within some city limits? I'm thinking the answer is no;
>>every part (except D.C.) is within a state, and within a county, but
>>there are substantial areas that are unincor****ated, and thus not
>>within any municipality (city/town/village/whatever).
>
>No, however the Post Office (for instance - at least in my experience)
>ascribes a city/town to every address, even if it's miles outside that
>town's limits.

To any *mailable* address, sure, but that doesn't mean that any place
your car might break down has a postal city assigned to it.

The "postal city" might not even be a city in any sense other than
"this is what you put in the 'city' slot of your address". I used to
live on an island; it had a couple of small towns (one incor****ated),
but was mostly rural or semi-rural, and my address there was "XYZ Foo
Street, Bainbridge Island, WA". Bainbridge has since become the
incor****ated
city of Bainbridge Island, but at the time it was purely a geographic
designation.

(The reverse is often true as well. I could be in downtown Tiny Hollow,
but if it's too small to have a post office, the official addresses
could all be "in" Nearby Midsize Town. In my experience, though,
addressing
a letter to Tiny Hollow will still get through, esp. if you use an
appropriate zip code.)

-- 
   Wim Lewis <wiml@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Seattle, WA, USA. PGP keyID 27F772C1