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by schoen 2580 days ago
Huh, it looks like the author of that older map might not have realized that "Pennsylvania 6-5000" is about the telephone number of a hotel in New York City (whose telephone exchange was named after Pennsylvania Station, which was named after the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was named after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_6-5000_(song)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEnnsylvania_6-5000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Pennsylvania

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(1910%E2%...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad

4 comments

I'm amused that in the blowup of New York State, Canajoharie is called out.

I lived in upstate New York for about 15 years and would not have been able to identify the town -- until a few years ago when They Might Be Giants wrote a song with that title.

http://tmbw.net/wiki/Canajoharie

And Wyoming, the state, is named for Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Valley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming

This is also the reason the well known 1940 swing song of the same name recorded by the Glen Miller band - after the phone number of the Pennsylvania hotel on 8th Ave whose ballroom they regularly played.
"Washington Bullets" isn't about Washington state either, which seems like a thing he'd be likely to know, so maybe he wasn't trying to be that strict.
The map was designed to make money, not to be a historical record.