On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 15:56:24 +0000, "Bruce  Johnson"
<xxxxxx@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

>Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2018 15:56:24 +0000
>
>
>
>On Sep 9, 2018, at 4:52 PM, Jeff Zeitlin <xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com<mailto:xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com>> wrote:
>
>>Not "forms of address", e.g., 'My Lord', 'Your Most Excellent Scholarhood',
>>et cetera, but "My office is at ...".
>>
>>(N.B. Comments, please, especially if you know of other forms!)
>>
>>Most of us are used to addresses of the form "123 Any Street", with a
>>fairly common variation of "Jedestraße 123". However, there are other ways
>>of defining where your office - or house, or store, or whatever - is. If,
>>in your worldbuilding, you use one of those other ways, you have another
>>hook to hang some potential trouble for your PCs...
>>
>>All of the systems below are used in the real world. I even tell you where
>>I found it to be used.
>>
>>
>>
>>In Nicaragua, addresses aren't numbered. Streets don't even have to be
>>named. Instead, the address is given by reference from a well-known
>>landmark location: "Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Noche, 3 cuadras al Sud, 1
>>cuadra 10 varas al Este" (In English: "Church of Our Lady of the Evening,
>>three blocks south, one block ten varas east" [one vara is about 83cm]).
>>Pretty much anything can be the starting landmark - churches, parks,
>>important municipal buildings, gas stations... even a mile (well,
>>kilometer) mark along a highway. Sometimes, a landmark building gets torn
>>down. The addresses relative to that landmark only change with the addition
>>of "Donde Fue" at the beginning, meaning "Where was", or where the landmark
>>used to be: "Donde fue Igl. N.S.de<http://N.S.de> la Noche, 3 c. Sud, 1 c. 10 v. Este”.

>Extrapolate this to a favela-like orbital hab, three dimensions, random deckage, constantly changing references…

The problem with that is handling damage control. In an orbital hab, DC is
going to need a standardized system to quickly get to wherever to do
cleanup/repair; in the absence of a separate address system, people will
end up using the DC system.

>Closer to home, I actually encountered a version of this many many years ago when a friend sent me directions to his house in the Boston metro area, which is notoriously labyrinthine, and the streets changed names as you went through different towns.

This actually isn't unusual; what I'm focussing on in this jotting is that
these descriptions are the _official address_, recognized by the national
postal authority (with the addition of city and postcode) - something
that's _not_ the case in Boston.

>He very carefully noted a route demarcated by stop signs and stop lights. “Get off the Turnpike at exit N, turn left at the next light, go through two stopsigns and a roundabout, then left at the next stop sign.….”
>
>In the three months between my receipt of the letter, and arriving in Boston, a new stop sign was installed….
>
>I ended up on the opposite side of the city from him...

And when you're giving these kinds of directions to a first-time visitor,
and give a location like "...a mile past where the old Jones barn used to
be..." Yes, this really happens...

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--
Jeff Zeitlin, Editor
Freelance Traveller
    The Electronic Fan-Supported Traveller® Resource
xxxxxx@freelancetraveller.com
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