Horsethieves (was Matrushka; Hryvna: more)

[Mark A Mandel]

        [James A. Landau]
#So now we know Barry Popik's little secret.  The City With Two Names
#Twice appoints horsethieves as parking ticket judges.

        [Mark A. Mandel]
"Come Fly With Me"... (Jim will get that; most others here will not.)

        [Jim again]
#Other way around.  This Galicianer horsethief is baffled.

OK, where did you get the expression "The City With Two Names Twice" for
NYC? I grew up there, and the only source I know for it is James Blish's
"Cities in Flight" series (4 sf novels).

The premise of the stories is a gadget, the "spindizzy", that has made
it possible for the cities of an economically exhausted Earth to "go
Okie", traveling through space as migrant labor for other human-settled
worlds. At one point the main character of the stories, the mayor of New
York, is appearing incognito at a meeting of many leaders of flying
cities, who are often called by the names of their cities, e.g. (made-up
ex.), "The Chair recognizes Topeka." An ally in his parliamentary
maneuverings asks him who he is, and he whispers, "What city has two
names, twice?" The other gasps as he solves the riddle (New York being
one of the most respected of the cities).

Since I don't know the expression from any other source, I assumed all
along -- evidently wrongly -- that Blish had made it up, and just now
that you had gotten it from his story.

-- Mark A. Mandel