Re: Cellphones while driving - article in Boston Herald

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

>While you might still have a 'town meeting' in Brookline...I thought it was
>population that actually deined town/city verbiage.  Is there a purist in
>the house?

I'm no purist, but on occasion I can play one on the radio...

AFAIK, in the Commonwealth of Masochistic, the legal distinction between
city and town is based solely on the form of government.  If there's
a mayor/council, it's a city; if there are town meetings that actually
still run things, it's a town.

Last time I checked, Framingham is the largest town in the state, with
a population larger than that of many cities.  The Framinghamians have
steadfastly refused to change to a city govrenment (unless there's been
a recent election to reverse that since I left that town a number of
years ago).

Other states do it differently.  In my native Pennsylvania, there are
townships, boroughs, cities, and perhaps one or two other concotions
that I don't remember.  Townships are laid out by geography, and may
incorporate (in whole or part) into boroughs or cities, depending on
population size, or at least that's what I vaguely remember.

-Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu