Hacker News Reader

It's a wry/sarcastic idiom, like calling the Atlantic Ocean "the pond". Nobody actually thinks the Atlantic Ocean is a pond.

Calling the Atlantic "the pond" is so cringe worthy. Why that ever caught on.

That probably comes from the 'English Understatement' school of thought.

"New York, New York, a helluva town. The Bronx is up but the Battery's down"

Frank Sinatra would like a word.