Talk:Bloomington-Normal

I seriously think that Bloomington-Normal is a single destination since they basically need to have the exact same sleep section (all of the hotels are on the perifery). -- (WT-en) Mark 00:58, 2 Apr 2005 (EST)


 * Don't entirely agree, as each has some identifying features. I'm editing the headers for both Bloomington and Normal; please examine and comment.  (I'm an ex-Normalite, so some of my comments about Bloomington might be, well, biased. :-) ) -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 20:55, 16 Sep 2005 (EDT)


 * Sure, they're totally different for locals. What I'm trying to say is that from a traveller's point of view they are basically a single destination. -- (WT-en) Mark 02:12, 17 Sep 2005 (EDT)


 * Sorry if I'm harping on about this, but these two don't have enough material to be split. Check it out:  The entire Chicagoland area is covered by a single article: Chicago.  Some of the suburbs covered are so different from the city or each other that they dwarf the difference between Bloomington and Normal.  Yet they are a single article.  The reason is that we don't yet have enough material to merit separate articles.


 * You are quite right that Bloomington and Normal feel quite different especially to locals. However, since you Sleep in the same place for a visit to both it's probably better to consolidate the articles until there's so much data that we have to split them.  -- (WT-en) Mark 15:07, 15 Oct 2005 (EDT)


 * I don't really feel strongly about this. If you (or anyone else) want to go to the effort of setting up a merge and redirects, by all means do so with my blessing.  I think it's important to do it by way of a joint page with redirects, though, because people will use different paths to the information.  (Example: if you look at the airport code, etc., you'll think Bloomington is the dominant component, while if you know about Illinois State University, you'll think Normal is.)  While the notion of a single, relatively short article covering all of Chicagoland seems strange to me simply because of the volume of information (the existing page surely doesn't do it justice), it's a different situation because everybody knows what the center of Chicagoland is.  Anyway, do whatever you think appropriate, no big deal to me, as long as both cities/towns are there and provide routes to the article with the substantial stuff. -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 21:50, 15 Oct 2005 (EDT)


 * Thanks. I didn't want to just do it since I might step on your toes. As for Chicago, I really think there's plenty of stuff on that page and that the burbs should get their own articles.  For that matter perhaps there's nearly enough to re-do Chicago with the Huge City template.  Oh well, I'm hardly ever there any more so my info is getting a bit out of date. -- (WT-en) Mark 03:32, 16 Oct 2005 (EDT)


 * OK, so I've started the merge. Please feel free to help. -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 19:31, 27 Dec 2005 (EST)

Why (Illinois)?
Whence the "(Illinois)" in the name? Is this competing with countless multitudes of other Bloomington-Normals out there? (WT-en) Jpatokal 20:10, 27 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Chuckle ... No, of course not.  However, it (1) simplifies some of the merging and redirecting that's going on, and (2) looks toward a time when we're forced to include state names owing to volume.  Think it ought to be just Bloomington-Normal?  I don't have a problem with that, if somebody else wants to do the virtual paperwork. -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 20:45, 27 Dec 2005 (EST)

What happened to Steak and Shake?
An anonymous contributor says that the original Steak and Shake restaurant -- a Route 66 original -- isn't there any more. Can you provide details, please? A couple of other articles are going to need correction too, if it's entirely gone. -- (WT-en) Bill-on-the-Hill 19:29, 18 June 2006 (EDT)