h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A87955410 Whittier, Alaska, USA: The Town Under One Roof
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In the US are there specific rules over what constitutes a 'town'?
I the UK a hamlet is a small settlement
A village is a settlement with a church.
A town is a settlement with a church and market.
A city is a settlement with a cathedral or charter/letters patent granting it city status.

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The short answer is 'no'. The longer answer is that some states do specify rules for 'towns'.

Here's the Whittier government page: http://www.whittieralaska.gov/

That page refers to Whittier as a 'community', a 'city', and a 'village'. It has 218 people in it. NPR called it a 'town'.

To make it worse, I live in a 'borough', which is Pennsylvania for 'town' or 'small city'. The borough is in a 'township', which is in a bigger unit called a 'county'. But in Alaska, a 'borough' is what a 'county' is in the other states. Except Louisiana, of course. In Louisiana, a county is a 'parish'. Most of Alaska is part of the 'Unorganized Borough'.

May I suggest that we refrain from addressing this issue in any way whatsoever? It makes no difference to the residents and will make our international readership get a headache.

Also, please do not attempt to insert that bad pun. It hurts my inner ears, as 'Whittier' is pronounced with a short 'i'.

But surely a 'borough' is a walled settlement, from 'burh'/'burg' meaning castle? Whereas a parish is the ecclesiastical area belonging to a specific church within a diocese.

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Those definitions don't work in the US, which has much more diversity in founders. You never know what you'll get.

Do you remember the Homestead Strike? This was a labour dispute in western Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. Homestead has a mayor now, but used to have a burgomaster. (Germans.)

Isn't a Burgomaster someone who works at King?

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I do have some questions about this, if I may?

Can you get from Begich Towers to the apartment block without going outside? Is there a covered linkway? Also, what happened to the Buckner Building? By disrepair do you mean that it has completely collapsed and is little more than a pile of rubble, or that it needs a good vacuuming and maybe some new curtains?

When you describe Whittier as the 'wettest city', shall we change 'city' to 'town' to remain consistent?

Did you know that Princess Cruises, as part of Carnival, have their headquarters down the road from where I work? Gurt big ugly building, it is, too.

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1. No, you can't go to the apartment complex without going outside, as far as I can tell.

2. The Buckner Building has no windows or doors, is constantly freezing and thawing, and is in horrible shape. It has a fence around it. Whittier has done some repairs and would like to save it for historical reasons, but the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation wants to tear it down. Do not put any of this information in the entry.

3. Go ahead and change 'city' to 'town' if it makes you happy.

4. Those cruise people are in bad odour in the US right now. They've had some, er, incidents with their boats in the Caribbean.

They've not had positive publicity here after it was revealed that they like dumping oil into the English Channel a couple of years ago…

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Thinking about it – Whittier has 220 inhabitants in one building – that's a mid-size halls of residence.

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That's about right.

Still, would you like to do the thorough read-through bit now, and let me know your thoughts?

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Did, done, okay.

Okay then, button pressed!
Until next time…

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