Re: Osama or Usama?

[Jeremy Mixer <mixer@zoso.net>]

On Tue, 9 Oct 2001, Garrett Wollman wrote:

> <<On Tue, 9 Oct 2001 01:04:18 -0400, Larry Weil <kc1ih@mediaone.net> said:
>
> > And I find it odd that media outlets tend to use the name of the
> > capital city to mean, in effect, the country.
>
> I don't.  It's a common-enough figure of speech that there's even a
> specific name for it: metonymy.
>
> The one that really gets my goat is reporters constantly saying things
> like ``the capital city of Islamabad'' which is simply wrong:
> Islamabad doesn't HAVE a capital city, it IS the capital city.  Could
> the reporter not bear to shut his or her mouth for one lousy tenth of
> a second?  (The correct phrasing would be ``the capital city,
> Islamabad''.)
>
HI Garret and others-

not trying to start an arguement here, but that means that if I were to
say that I live in the city of Bangor I would be speaking improperly? Many
police cars say on them "City of _____", Bangor I beleive has "City of
Bangor public works" or "...police" etc on all of their vehicles........
Is this really any different?

Jeremy