Random: A City In Kansas Is Renaming Itself 'ToPikachu' In Honour Of Everyone's Favourite Pokémon

Buncha nerds

This town is always changing its name. In 2010, it was "Google"

I don't live anywhere with a name that could be easily changed to that of a Pokémon but it is pretty Gastly!

Well, not really it's actually alright.

This whole thing seems Farfetch'd.

Woohoo! I work a couple of blocks from there. This is the best thing to happen to Topeka since...well 1998. Now I’m sad

"A Town in Kansas"

Is the title meant to be insulting or a joke? Topeka is the state capital, one if the biggest cities in Kansas, it's the equivalent of referring to London as "a town in Britain".

I'm from/in NY, so I don't have any personal interest in Kansas, but the use of the word "town" in the title and article seemed intentional in a purposefully negative sort of way.

"A town in Kansas" - really? Lol

When you live in Kansas, apparently you’ll do anything to attempt to entertain yourself.

"Kansas town called Topeka"... it's the state capital

@Damo lol I wasn't offended, I thought it was just a funny mistake. Like British people don't love to point out how we mispronounce their (wacky) town names

@thesilverbrick I live in a smaller town in kansas, and yeah there tends to not be tons to do. Luckily as a gamer I always find plenty to do lol. It does have it's perks very little crime, the air for the most part is great, I enjoy where i live even if there isn't as much stuff to do in town.

@Damo It would pull more weight if it said state capital instead of just city. Every state has hundreds if not thousands of cities but each one only has one capital.

@Damo It's forgivable. It's one of the 5 places in the US not just copy-paste renamed from a place in the UK.

Topeka
Topkek
Topikachu
Togepi
Togetic
Togedemaru

Guess they have more shots left?

Also, kek, US people thinking anybody knows jack about state capitals in their states.

You see, there's a reason other countries have 1. That'll let people remember it. You can't expect anybody outside the US to know jack about which place is a town, a city or a state capital.

Just like most people won't know that New York is both a city and a state. Horribly unoriginal, but ay.

@Blizzia You're acting like having one capital fixes it. We also have one capital, Washington DC. Everyone here knows it and so does anyone outside the country.

Meanwhile, most of our population doesnt care about the capital of Portugal. I know valedictorians who know jack about geography.

But, you know what would fix these problems from leaking into articles and inciting stupid comments like yours?

A quick google search.

@NEStalgia or to have a name in Spanish.

@NEStalgia @Yosheel
Or to be called "Slapout"

@SmaMan now that was an interesting read

Might need to make the 45min drive to get to Topeka for this...

@Blizzia ...The reason other countries have one capitol is because they are different. The geographical differences between most contries and the United States is not as simplistic as 1 land mass = 1 capitol. There is one national capital. There are 50 state capitals for 50 unified states. Within those 50 unified states are counties, with towns acting as county seats.
So, no, the reason other countries have 1 capitol is not “so you can remember it”.

@Blizzia The structure of the US (whatever it has devolved into now aside) was that each state was just that...a state...not a province, bound by a union, not unlike the EU. The capital of France is not Brussels. The capital of Kansas is not Washington.

Of course Washington is the capital of the US, while the EU technically has no official capital, so I'm pretty sure the US isn't the more confusing one here

I'm really amazed that the whole colony of "New York" wasn't just named =NEW= New York.

@Yosheel Good point. The colonists were pretty unoriginal. Any place under the Spanish flag got Spanish names, but at least most of them were not copy paste names of places in Spain. The French and Brits though just named everything "New" like they were 250 years ahead of Nintendo. =NEW= 3DS. =NEW= Super Mario Bros. =NEW= York. =New= Mexico. =NEW= Orleans. =NEW= Hampshire. And then there's like the 5000 Lancasters, Dovers, Chesters, Londons, Hamptons, etc. etc. etc. Oh and I think there's a few =NEW= Londons as well.

The Spanish at least came up with descriptions rather than paint by numbers. 18th century Brits were apparently not the most creative folk in the world.... Though I've heard it on good authority they were in fact not expecting the Spanish inquisition.

The Brits got creative with Virginia and a thousand Elizabeth/Elizabethtowns though......so yay?

(Edit: Not 18th century Brits, most of those places were really named during the 14-17th centuries. But the tradition was continued copying it into new places in the 18th. )

@NEStalgia haha some of them got really creative too! Have you ever been to “Tall Stick”, California?

Isn't Topeka where the Westboro Baptist Church is based? I'm sure something Pokemon-related happening to their town is gonna go down real well with them...

If I didn't have to traverse the equivalent of two states to get there and have other obligations already, I would totally go there this weekend and join in on the festivities. It may seem silly, but it's also a gimmick that I can get behind.

Part of me hates this idea as a waste of time and money which potentially diverts away from serious political issues in the city. On the other hand I love it as a fun way to show the lighter side of local government and a way to draw in a few extra tourists at the weekend.

Maybe I'm just jealous my city doesn't fit into any Pokémon name easily!

@ieatdragonz Eh, doubt that'd fix anything since my comment is anything but stupid.

You know what'd fix this debacle even better? You refraining from wasting your brain cells on pointless remarks.

@HobbitGamer Well there you are, captain obvious! No, obviously having 1 capital isn't so people can remember it. But people aren't going to remember a bloody state capital. That was the entire point. Seems like you missed that point.

Only for one day? What's even the point then?

@Damo "no ill will"

It read more like a joke, or a country Western song, "A Town Named Topeka", than actual malice. For future reference when ill will is intended we usually refer to most of the non-coastal US as "fly-over country", and Kansas is pretty much at the heart of that. 😉 KC does have some really good bbq though. 😊

As for the article, it does make for a better read when a state capital city changes it's name, if only for day, rather than some small one traffic light town in BFE.

FYI for anyone overseas planning on visiting the US, its a good idea to learn the 50 state capitals so you know which cities to avoid while you're on vacation, I can't think of a good one worth seeing. 😛

@NEStalgia Well, yeah... But the US is regarded as one country. Not 50 countries (yes, yes, states, we know, we know). Expecting anyone to know anything but Washington D.C. is just as stupid as expecting anyone to know anything but the capital city in any other country.

For all the blah about states being on their own but unified with the rest, not unlike the EU, it's still very much unlike the EU, as the EU is regarded as a bunch of countries, while the US is regarded as... One. Which is why the capital of Kansas might as well be Washington, but the capital of France would never be Brussels, since Brussels isn't located in France.

The EU is a union of countries. The US is a union of states that has seen fit to define itself as a country. Which is why it makes sense to call Washington D.C. The capital of the US, but even the notion of a capital within the EU makes no sense.

New New York would've been funny though. I'd vote on that name, my motivations clearly satirical.

@Blizzia Well, now you're just being unpleasant.

@Yosheel or White Sands, Nevada. Eerie, Indiana.

@HobbitGamer Perhaps, but someone has to be the bad guy, right? Apparently that'd be me, since you stating the obvious is clearly my fault.

@Blizzia mkay

@Blizzia State and Country are synonyms. They're supposed to be the same thing.

What has happened in the US is a perversion of the original design and intent, where the Federalists (Whigs) ran roughshod over the original terms and over time molded the mere union into a superstate, and reducing states to little more than provinces to rubber stamp their policies. The effect was cemented with the US Civil War. So there's something of a difference between how it's actually written to work, and how it's actually practically implemented today....by law it's still the original way, but our fearless leaders merely trample the laws in their quests to become god-emperors.

However, where you are technically kind of right from the perspective of another country is that the whole original point of the union was that it would be the external face of all states to other nations. I.E. DK would never negotiate directly with Kansas or New York, or Virginia, it would only interface with the US federal government. In fact that was almost it's only purpose. The federal union would take care of foreign diplomacy, trade, tariffs, conflict, and ensure all states adhered to the primary laws by which the states are bound. EVERYTHING else was to be independent and handled in each state autonomously. So you're not actually wrong from your perspective. The states and internal governments were entirely meant as a domestic structure, and the federal government existed explicitly as the interface for international activity. You in the EU would never actually need to know the capital of KS because your country would never directly interact with KS in any official capacity (unless you were visiting/living/building a business location in KS.)

So I'll give you a point on that one. Technically, looking at it from DK, it is indeed designed that you only need to think of it as one country with one capital. That actually is the way it's intended to appear from your location to keep it simple, exactly as you wanted

18th century Brits may have been terrible at naming things, but they were pretty slick at designing systems

@NEStalgia Yup, pretty much the point I made, glad someone got it

Also, regarding names... Boy. I think half of the British cities were named during arguments, because I swear most are gibberish or swearwords.

@NEStalgia Don't forget our many Native American reserves, which some (like the Navajo Nation) are big enough to have their own international diplomacy. That part is always very confusing haha.

What a system we Americans got. Complex and confusing, yet I guess it works out in the end. I mean, except for the south, but that's its own can of worms

@rjejr Sacramento's alright, Austin has some nice locales and fooderies, Honolulu is fantastic, and Atlanta is always a good time. You aint wrong though, most the time, avoid the state capitals. We would know cough Albany cough.

@ieatdragonz Yeah, the reserves are a particularly unusual status. Both part of and not part of the US at the same time, yet not territories either.

Isn't the official tourism slogan "Albany. It could be worse."?

@ieatdragonz I've never heard anything good about Sacramento, just hot and concrete. I've only driven through it briefly myself. I've driven through about 38 states and no good capitals come to mind. Though I've never been to Honolulu. Atlanta was ok, once you get past every street being named some version of "Peach", forgot about that one, but I've always been more of a fan of the college towns outside of the capitals. There's one northeast of Atlanta, think it was a big college band birthplace in the 80's. And yeah, the less said about Albany the better.

@Blizzia I don’t know what you’re talking about. Loughborough is a perfectly easy English place name to understand. As are Marylebone, Ashby De La Zouch and Steeple Bumpstead.
My personal favourite is a tiny village in the north that’s simply called Pity Me.
I waste a lot of time at work on Google Maps.

@rjejr

I'm betting it ain't Albany...lol. Oops, see you and NEStalgia already covered that.

Albany's always good for a laugh...or a cry.

@k8sMum Best thing about Albany is the big waterfall northeast of it, which I only found out existed a couple of years ago. A great big wide waterfall that you can't see from anywhere b/c the strip of park they made is kept locked behind a big chain link fence, and I guess they don't want to clean up around the project type housing near the bottom. It was kind of a surprise they weren't trying to monetize it more like Niagara, throw up a minigolf course, ferris wheel and a wax museum nearby. Just nothing.

Oh. Topeka. I need to head over there and visit Paisano's again. That lasagna is so good.

Topeka sure likes to do these name change stunts. Makes no sense to me.

@rjejr To be fair, "one of the biggest cities in Kansas" isn't saying much.

Pikachu's town deserves a permanent name change topikachu sounds better anyway

@NEStalgia Although, pieces of the original design still exist today, most notably the 10th Ammendent to the U.S. Constitution, which automatically grants all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government to the states or the people. Under this guideline, several facets of government such as the local law enforcement and court systems remain autonomous to the individual states. Each state even maintains its own individual constitution and legislature.

As a sidenote, when the Allies were discussing plans for what would become the United Nations once they finished winning the war, Stalin proposed that all of the 15 republics that comprised the Soviet Union should each receive their own vote. Roosevelt then countered by saying that the U.S. should then receive (at the time) 48 votes. Stalin immediately gave up on that idea.

"On this special day, Nintendo will provide the residents of ToPikachu with the opportunity to play Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee on the Switch"

Wow what a privilege I'm so jelous...

@rjejr

" 'A Town in Kansas'

Is the title meant to be insulting or a joke? Topeka is the state capital, one if the biggest cities in Kansas, it's the equivalent of referring to London as 'a town in Britain'.

I'm from/in NY, so I don't have any personal interest in Kansas, but the use of the word 'town' in the title and article seemed intentional in a purposefully negative sort of way."

I had never found the uses of the word to had been either jokes or insults.

(note: the message I had quoted appeared to had been posted before the word was displaced)

@BulbasaurusRex "one of the biggest cities in Kansas"

Well to be fair, I've never heard of 3 of the top 5, but it's still the state Capital, it's more than a town. If some small town in Kansas change it's name to Pikachu not even the 12 people who lived there would care, much less anyone anywhere else. So city aside, it's a state capital, that's worth something to me. Even if most state capitals are just stand ins for post apocalypse zombie movies. I lived in Kentucky for 8 years, Frankfurt was pretty much 3 cement buildings in a swamp. But it was still the state capital.