Hacker News Reader

Comment by datameta | Hacker News Reader

I like expanding a good metaphor, but I think the idea is that I wouldn't discourage a prospective tourist from travelling to Odessa, Ukraine* because of the belgian block streets or to Anytown USA because their road infrastructure isn't pedestrian oriented.

*disambiguation added

View on HN

Given that you mentioned the U.S., I assume that by Odessa you don't mean the capital of Ukraine, but the town in Texas?

I would very much consider Odessa, Texas as “Anytown USA”. Not to mention I would question if the small town had Belgian blocks. I read the post as referring to Odessa, UK.

Not to take this into the realm of pedantry but unless you're referring the the United Kingdom, I should point out the country acronym for Ukraine is 'UA'.

Isn't pedantry why we come to HN to read comments of precise people educating us and learn a bunch! Thank you for this.

Because this made me curious, apparently "San Jose" [0] is the most popular worldwide place name.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popular_place_names

By the number of "San", it either questions the sailor expression "a woman in every port" as either saints getting around a lot, or that the Spanish got around a lot.

I do mean Odessa, Ukraine. As far as I am aware Odessa, Texas was not built in the 18th-19th centuries so there would be no belgian block streets to be found.

> I assume that by Odessa you don't mean the capital of Ukraine

Odessa is not and was never the capital of Ukraine.

I had a fleeting brain fart. Thanks/sorry for catching it. I know Ukraine's capital, but what's done is done.

Odessa was the 2nd or 3rd largest city in the Russian Empire and currently holds a similar status in Ukraine, afaik. This is largely due to it being a warm water port.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com