Plymouth, USA

This one is directed to Swedish journalists and editors who have never learned that there are cities and towns of the same name in any number of the 50 states in the USA. This requires a state identification. What brings this in focus are the women’s world hockey games being played in Plymouth, Michigan. However, in the Swedish media, the city is only identified as Plymouth, USA. This may be because the official website for the world federation also identifies the host city only as Plymouth, USA.

A quick Google search shows there are at least 30 cities, towns or other locations named Plymouth in the United States. The most famous, of course, is Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims settled in 1620 (after spending a month in what is now Provincetown, across Cape Cod Bay, a wonderful place to visit, they concluded, but too little fresh water, too much sand and too many unfriendly Indians).

Of course, this note will not result in Swedish reporters and editors including state identities when writing about American cities (other than the well-known ones, as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and some others). Thus, expect to see reports from Washington, USA (there are 88 post office locations named Washington, in addition to that of DC); Springfield, USA; Franklin, USA; Bristol, USA; or Clinton, USA. Those are the most common place names (thanks to the US Post Office list on Wikipedia). And to illustrate my point further, there are at least seven American towns or vllages named Stockholm and ten named Sweden or New Sweden.

Posted from Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden.

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