• Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      I just realized New York isn’t just the city, but also a state? And now I was about to write that I feel like I knew this in the back of my head, because that’s probably then where New Jersey is, but nope, turns out that is also its own state. And it’s kind of closer to New-York-the-city, because it and Connecticut apparently double-teamed New-York-the-state.

      Also, there’s a mountain range in New-York-the-state which is called “Catskill Mountains”, which I’m totally not just bringing up to distract from my lack of geography knowledge. 🫠

      • Bongles@lemmy.zip
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        20 hours ago

        I just realized New York isn’t just the city, but also a state

        As someone from New York State, that’s been the bane of my existence. Want to search online for something specific to New York? Full of results for the city, where the answer is probably different. Everyone assumes you mean the city when you say where you’re from (except New Yorkers).

        By the way, people refer to it as New York State and New York City if they’re being specific. Also, there’s an area in New York State called Catskill. Just a fun fact I guess.

        • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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          8 hours ago

          By the way, people refer to it as New York State and New York City if they’re being specific.

          Yeah, I was being extra obtuse for comedic effect. 😅

          But well, I’m somewhat glad that it’s not just me then, who can’t tell the two apart…

  • Flauschige_Lemmata@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    That Chicago waterway is artificial, isn’t it?

    So this is about as much of an island as Western Europe (Main-Donau Chanel), Africa (Suez Chanel) and North America (Panama Chanel)

      • glimse@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Remember that time they accidentally flooded downtown? Chicago has a fun history of architecture and city planning

        • ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          Here is one of my bits of Chicago trivia. Ridge road is one of the oldest roads in Chicago. If you drive down it, you will notice there are a lot of cemeteries along the road. That is because the ridge it is named after is the beach dune from the old shoreline when the lake stretched further inland during the last glacial period. The cemeteries build along this road because it’s easier digging graves in sand.

        • calliope@retrolemmy.com
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          1 day ago

          I actually didn’t know about that! Incredible.

          Cities are fascinating. Isn’t a chunk of the waterline built on debris? San Francisco is too. Push it into the water and build, it’s fine.

          Another interesting thing about Chicago is how the stockyards emptied into “bubbly creek,” which is why it’s named that. There’s a few feet of animal fat still bubbling at the bottom.

          • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip
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            1 day ago

            Interesting to note that the rotting animal bits causing the bubbles are OVER A HUNDRED years old. Holy fucking hell they had to have dumped a lot in there

              • calliope@retrolemmy.com
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                1 day ago

                In the Wikipedia article it talks about some of the ways they used the stuff! Collecting the gases hadn’t occurred to them but it did catch fire a lot.

                Wikipedia quotes The Jungle by Upton Sinclair:

                The packers used to leave the creek that way, till every now and then the surface would catch on fire and burn furiously, and the fire department would have to come and put it out. Once, however, an ingenious stranger came and started to gather this filth in scows, to make lard out of; then the packers took the cue, and got out an injunction to stop him, and afterwards gathered it themselves. The banks of “Bubbly Creek” are plastered thick with hairs, and this also the packers gather and clean.

    • LordPassionFruit@lemmy.ca
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      16 hours ago

      I’m from one of those provinces. I’m a 10th Generation Canadian whose family fled after the Revolutionary War because they supported the Brits, and we’ve lived in our small community since then. I am not, and have no intention to be an American.

      But all the same, something like this doesn’t need more than a simple apology. Maybe they used the US instead of ‘Eastern North America’ and didn’t think anything of it. Maybe they’re just bad at geography. But if it was intentional, that’s when I get mad.

    • Toto@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Unfortunately, we’re getting used to it. Reference Rick Mercier’s Talking To Americans series.

  • mercano@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    New England, New Brunswick, far eastern New York, and southern Quebec are also an island. Lake Champlain straddles the border between northern Vermont and New York. The lake drains north via the Richelieu River, which connects to the Saint Lawerence River and the Atlantic Ocean. At the south end of Lake Champlain, there’s the Champlain Canal, which goes west to the Hudson River, which also drains to the Atlantic.

    The Hudson also connects to the Erie Canal, which would make northern New York its own island.

    • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It stills blows my mind that two navies have duked it out in Lake Champlain. Cannon fire battle, multi-day pursuits… that lake is looong!

  • nexguy@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I’m pretty sure it’s biggest island is just to the left of that river which includes the great Alaskan peninsula.