Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world.

Origin and use

The word town shares an origin with the German word Stadt, the Dutch word tuin, and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the original meaning of the word: a fence of any material. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom (cf. Old Irish dun, Welsh din "fortress, fortified place, camp," dinas "city;"

In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications, and built a palisade or stockade instead. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, which had a high fence or a wall around them (like the garden of palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, which was the example for the privy garden of William and Mary at Hampton Court). In Old Norse tun means a (grassy) place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian.

Small Town

"Small Town" is a song written by John Mellencamp and released on his 1985 album Scarecrow. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Content

Mellencamp wrote the song about his experiences growing up in a small town in Indiana, having been born in Seymour, Indiana, and living in Bloomington, Indiana, which, at the time of the release of the song, was much smaller. The music video has references to both towns.

Backstory

"I wrote that song in the laundry room of my old house," Mellencamp told American Songwriter magazine in 2004. "We had company, and I had to go write the song. And the people upstairs could hear me writing and they were all laughing when I came up. They said, 'You've got to be kidding.' What else can you say about it?"

In popular culture

NBA legend and fellow Indiana native Larry Bird used the song during his retirement ceremony in 1993, referring to his hometown of French Lick, Indiana as a "small town." The Sports Illustrated-produced VHS NBA Superstars featured a highlight reel of Bird set to the song.

Small Town (Sports Night)

"Small Town" is the thirteenth episode of the first season of the television series Sports Night, written by Aaron Sorkin and Paul Redford, and directed by Thomas Schlamme, premiered on ABC in the United States on January 12, 1999.

In the episode, Dana and Casey are supposed to take the night off but are reluctant to do so. They choose to have a double date, Dana with Gordon and Casey with blind date Lisa. Natalie is left to produce the show for the first time, and has to handle a late trade, and Isaac and Jeremy question her authority amongst the rush of the deadline. Bobbi Bernstein, Casey's replacement for the night, claims that Dan slept with her in Spain and failed to call her afterwards, which Dan disputes, calling her "psychotic". In a subsequent episode, "Eli's Coming", Dan learns Bobbi is not wrong, but her appearance was different at the time, and Dan knew her as "Roberta".

Six characters receive top billing in the episode: Casey McCall (Peter Krause); Dan Rydell (Josh Charles); Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman); Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume); Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd) and Jeremy Goodwin (Joshua Malina. Several recurring characters also appear in the episode including Kim (Kayla Blake); Elliot (Greg Baker), Chris (Timothy Davis-Reed), Will (Ron Ostrow) and Gordon (Ted McGinley). Lisa Edelstein, who would later have a starring role in House, guest-stars as Bobbi Bernstein, while other guest stars include Alice Coppola and Amy Powell, who appear as Leesa and Kelly respectively.